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 Taiwan and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 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 The Monochrome Set to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 U.S. Maple. All the underground hits.
All Lucky Dragons tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gichy Dan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The American Breed record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Wake,
Mission of Burma,
Infiniti,
Fluxion,
The Fugs,
The Angels of Light,
Vainqueur,
Television Personalities,
Lou Reed,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Robert Wyatt,
Drexciya,
Pagans,
UT,
The Divine Comedy,
Sarah Menescal,
Danielle Patucci,
Arcadia,
Lou Christie,
Max Romeo,
Parry Music,
The Selecter,
Ultravox,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Robert Hood,
the Soft Cell,
Tim Buckley,
These Immortal Souls,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Ornette Coleman,
MDC,
Underground Resistance,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Curtis Mayfield,
Ossler,
The Mummies,
Leonard Cohen,
Scientists,
Marc Almond,
EPMD,
Donny Hathaway,
Nils Olav,
Sam Rivers,
The Gladiators,
Half Japanese,
The Saints,
Junior Murvin,
Warren Ellis,
Skaos,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Fall,
Ice-T,
H. Thieme,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Gastr Del Sol,
Donald Byrd,
New Age Steppers,
Easy Going,
The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band.
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.