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 Solomon Islands and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the guitar 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 Joe Finger to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Half Japanese. All the underground hits.
All The American Breed tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Leonard Cohen record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wolf Eyes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Mummies,
Throbbing Gristle,
Black Sheep,
Charles Mingus,
The Busters,
Oblivians,
The Slits,
Little Man,
Index,
Surgeon,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Peter and Kerry,
New Order,
David Axelrod,
Toni Rubio,
Silicon Teens,
Jawbox,
Jacob Miller,
the Germs,
Ossler,
the Human League,
John Coltrane,
Electric Prunes,
Hot Snakes,
Essential Logic,
Yellowson,
The Velvet Underground,
Piero Umiliani,
New York Dolls,
Jeff Mills,
Joe Finger,
Banda Bassotti,
the Normal,
Pole,
the Swans,
Siglo XX,
Gabor Szabo,
Spandau Ballet,
The Fall,
Derrick Morgan,
Dawn Penn,
The Young Rascals,
David McCallum,
The Music Machine,
the Bar-Kays,
Kenny Larkin,
Neu!,
The Moleskins,
The Real Kids,
Sällskapet,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Sex Pistols,
Inner City,
The New Christs,
Rotary Connection,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Fear,
James White and The Blacks,
Glenn Branca,
The Motions, The Motions, The Motions, The Motions.
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.