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 Mali and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 Columbus and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 Subhumans to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Qualms. All the underground hits.
All Lindisfarne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Index 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Hood record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mark Hollis,
Idris Muhammad,
Leonard Cohen,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Nils Olav,
The Searchers,
Bad Manners,
Warsaw,
The Alarm Clocks,
Jeff Mills,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Hot Snakes,
Black Pus,
Jesper Dahlback,
Judy Mowatt,
Juan Atkins,
Derrick Morgan,
Parry Music,
The Angels of Light,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Flipper,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Red Krayola,
The Gladiators,
MC5,
Oblivians,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Crooked Eye,
Fear,
Hoover,
CMW,
Maleditus Sound,
Magazine,
The Selecter,
Pharoah Sanders,
Mandrill,
Rapeman,
Blake Baxter,
Arcadia,
Crispian St. Peters,
Stockholm Monsters,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Fire Engines,
Flash Fearless,
Dawn Penn,
Avey Tare,
Cecil Taylor,
Gabor Szabo,
Lebanon Hanover,
Kool Moe Dee,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Bush Tetras,
Japan,
Vladislav Delay,
Royal Trux,
Colin Newman,
Cameo,
The Smiths,
Albert Ayler,
Barry Ungar, Barry Ungar, Barry Ungar, Barry Ungar.
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.