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 Algeria and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television 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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Yellowson to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Todd Rundgren. All the underground hits.
All Agitation Free tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Richard Hell and the Voidoids record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 sitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rotary Connection record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marmalade,
Delta 5,
Wolf Eyes,
Swell Maps,
Fat Boys,
Joe Finger,
Kas Product,
Black Bananas,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Skatalites,
FM Einheit,
Hashim,
Parry Music,
Godley & Creme,
the Soft Cell,
Morten Harket,
The Monks,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
John Foxx,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Electric Prunes,
Adolescents,
Susan Cadogan,
Arcadia,
Crooked Eye,
Symarip,
Kerrie Biddell,
Lou Reed,
Hasil Adkins,
The Smoke,
Absolute Body Control,
New Order,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Groovy Waters,
Circle Jerks,
Cecil Taylor,
Piero Umiliani,
Bill Near,
Eurythmics,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Gong,
Bad Manners,
K-Klass,
Sexual Harrassment,
Graham Central Station,
Henry Cow,
Ronnie Foster,
Tropical Tobacco,
X-102,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Lyres,
Lungfish,
Grey Daturas,
Boogie Down Productions,
Eddi Front,
Thompson Twins,
The Selecter,
Boz Scaggs,
The Wake,
The Gories, The Gories, The Gories, The Gories.
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.