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 Morocco and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 London and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 spring reverb 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 Lindisfarne to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Colin Newman. All the underground hits.
All Lightning Bolt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lower 48 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pere Ubu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Golliwogs,
Heaven 17,
Swell Maps,
Khruangbin,
Fugazi,
K-Klass,
The Fugs,
Darondo,
Pharoah Sanders,
Black Flag,
The Barracudas,
Lee Hazlewood,
Los Fastidios,
Mark Hollis,
The Tremeloes,
a-ha,
The Slackers,
Shoche,
The Real Kids,
New York Dolls,
The Monochrome Set,
Easy Going,
Wasted Youth,
Lightning Bolt,
Symarip,
The Misunderstood,
The Moody Blues,
Crooked Eye,
Glambeats Corp.,
Skriet,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Toni Rubio,
Tim Buckley,
Man Eating Sloth,
Iggy Pop,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Quadrant,
Isaac Hayes,
The Fall,
The Black Dice,
The Grass Roots,
E-Dancer,
Bill Near,
La Düsseldorf,
Marine Girls,
Peter and Kerry,
John Foxx,
Hardrive,
Juan Atkins,
Johnny Clarke,
Jerry's Kids,
Tres Demented,
Alison Limerick,
Lou Christie,
Lucky Dragons,
Lebanon Hanover,
Camberwell Now,
Neu!,
Goldenarms, Goldenarms, Goldenarms, Goldenarms.
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.