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 Dominica and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Birthday Party to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Gregory Isaacs. All the underground hits.
All Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The American Breed record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swans,
MC5,
The Music Machine,
Susan Cadogan,
Gabor Szabo,
John Holt,
Circle Jerks,
The Motions,
Mark Hollis,
The Gladiators,
Isaac Hayes,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Rakim,
Adolescents,
Ponytail,
Soft Machine,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Smoke,
The Cure,
Niagra,
Sällskapet,
Pharoah Sanders,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Bad Manners,
John Lydon,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Sugar Minott,
Arcadia,
Franke,
Interpol,
Juan Atkins,
Maurizio,
Darondo,
Livin' Joy,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Howard Jones,
Sam Rivers,
June Days,
Cal Tjader,
Bob Dylan,
Mo-Dettes,
Scratch Acid,
Rotary Connection,
Cheater Slicks,
The Slackers,
Godley & Creme,
Lower 48,
The Trojans,
Tomorrow,
Negative Approach,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Visage,
The Beau Brummels,
The Busters,
Gang of Four, Gang of Four, Gang of Four, Gang of Four.
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.