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 Rwanda and from Houston.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 Donald Fagen 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 Crash Course in Science to the grime 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 Camberwell Now. All the underground hits.
All Supertramp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jimmy McGriff 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 marimba and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Remains record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Stooges,
Gang Starr,
The Velvet Underground,
JFA,
Livin' Joy,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lyres,
Public Enemy,
Excepter,
The Associates,
Patti Smith,
Scrapy,
Alice Coltrane,
The Index,
Don Cherry,
Mad Mike,
Jacques Brel,
Desert Stars,
Parry Music,
Fad Gadget,
The Star Department,
Kas Product,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Mummies,
Gong,
Faraquet,
Tubeway Army,
Bang On A Can,
Pere Ubu,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Detroit Cobras,
John Lydon,
the Association,
Ohio Players,
The American Breed,
Interpol,
Jimmy McGriff,
Stockholm Monsters,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Ronnie Foster,
Man Parrish,
Albert Ayler,
Mark Hollis,
Chris & Cosey,
Mary Jane Girls,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
the Germs,
Yazoo,
The Remains,
Gichy Dan,
The Leaves,
LL Cool J,
The Techniques,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Smiths,
Funkadelic,
Basic Channel,
ABC,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Fluxion,
Niagra,
Slave,
Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope.
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.