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 Swaziland and from Bremen.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the güiro 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 Modern Lovers to the grunge 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 The Shadows of Knight. All the underground hits.
All Althea and Donna tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Y Pants record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tim Buckley record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alphaville,
Minutemen,
Sister Nancy,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Jeru the Damaja,
Negative Approach,
Con Funk Shun,
Basic Channel,
Animal Collective,
Marine Girls,
The Happenings,
Sonny Sharrock,
Fugazi,
Clear Light,
Crash Course in Science,
Brothers Johnson,
Jandek,
Japan,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Fall,
Tomorrow,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Don Cherry,
The United States of America,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Andrew Hill,
MC5,
The Toasters,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Trojans,
Stockholm Monsters,
Deadbeat,
Make Up,
The Neon Judgement,
John Lydon,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Sun Ra,
June Days,
Harmonia,
The Knickerbockers,
Ronan,
Pierre Henry,
Surgeon,
DNA,
CMW,
Von Mondo,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Scrapy,
Scientists,
X-101,
Lakeside,
Crispian St. Peters,
Rakim,
Nation of Ulysses,
Ituana,
Pulsallama,
Magma,
The Doors,
Fat Boys,
Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants.
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.