Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Barbados and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Chrome to the grunge kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Q and Not U. All the underground hits.
All Cluster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Pus record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Crooked Eye record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fear,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Laurel Aitken,
Cymande,
Can,
Arab on Radar,
John Cale,
Bobby Hutcherson,
8 Eyed Spy,
Soft Machine,
Nick Fraelich,
Buzzcocks,
Lakeside,
Technova,
The Moody Blues,
Barbara Tucker,
The Mummies,
Oblivians,
FM Einheit,
The Associates,
The Trojans,
Albert Ayler,
Alison Limerick,
Byron Stingily,
Amon Düül,
Glenn Branca,
Accadde A,
Pere Ubu,
CMW,
Supertramp,
The Raincoats,
Niagra,
Procol Harum,
Leonard Cohen,
Bobby Byrd,
Lindisfarne,
The Misunderstood,
Rekid,
Mars,
Q and Not U,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Scrapy,
The Blackbyrds,
Monolake,
The Grass Roots,
The Fugs,
Marmalade,
Index,
The Gap Band,
Y Pants,
Minny Pops,
The Fortunes,
The Zeros,
Black Moon,
London Community Gospel Choir,
James White and The Blacks,
Thompson Twins,
Crime, Crime, Crime, Crime.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.