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 Mali and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Ultra Naté to the rap kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Bobby Byrd. All the underground hits.
All Lebanon Hanover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lakeside record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a This Heat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lungfish,
Derrick Morgan,
E-Dancer,
Warsaw,
Harmonia,
Marcia Griffiths,
Dual Sessions,
Eli Mardock,
Urselle,
Gichy Dan,
The Busters,
The Index,
The Residents,
Neu!,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Faraquet,
Infiniti,
Dorothy Ashby,
Thee Headcoats,
Echospace,
Kenny Larkin,
Sun City Girls,
Camouflage,
Zero Boys,
Minutemen,
Bobby Womack,
Reuben Wilson,
The Gories,
The Star Department,
China Crisis,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Crooked Eye,
The Tremeloes,
H. Thieme,
Trumans Water,
Scion,
Rites of Spring,
Tubeway Army,
Nas,
Moby Grape,
The Gun Club,
Depeche Mode,
Spoonie Gee,
Sam Rivers,
Connie Case,
The Young Rascals,
Jesper Dahlback,
Cameo,
Con Funk Shun,
Anakelly,
Deakin,
In Retrospect,
Barrington Levy,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Wasted Youth,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Monks,
Youth Brigade,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Remains,
Lalann,
The Modern Lovers,
Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu.
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.