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 Jordan and from Tehran.
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 Madrid and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the clarinet 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 The Victims to the rap 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 Michelle Simonal. All the underground hits.
All Marshall Jefferson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eric B and Rakim record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Patti Smith record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mantronix,
Trumans Water,
Crispy Ambulance,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Television Personalities,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Harmonia,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Doors,
Outsiders,
Johnny Clarke,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Echospace,
Fad Gadget,
Donald Byrd,
The United States of America,
Drexciya,
Bang On A Can,
T. Rex,
Harpers Bizarre,
Alphaville,
The Motions,
Toni Rubio,
Technova,
Deakin,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Kinks,
Wings,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Los Fastidios,
Smog,
Josef K,
The Index,
Marine Girls,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
China Crisis,
the Normal,
Gang Green,
Hoover,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Mission of Burma,
The Names,
Grandmaster Flash,
The J.B.'s,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Smoke,
Don Cherry,
the Swans,
EPMD,
Pantaleimon,
Lightning Bolt,
Quando Quango,
Janne Schatter,
Angry Samoans,
Eric Dolphy,
Bad Manners,
Glenn Branca,
John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane.
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.