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 Netherlands and from Mexico City.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the oboe 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 Swans to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Rod Modell. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Hutcherson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Theoretical Girls,
F. McDonald,
Basic Channel,
Organ,
Zapp,
Rekid,
Bad Manners,
10cc,
Newcleus,
Absolute Body Control,
The Fall,
Curtis Mayfield,
Motorama,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Animal Collective,
Jeff Mills,
Robert Hood,
Bobby Byrd,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Slackers,
Dennis Brown,
Gerry Rafferty,
Monks,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Pierre Henry,
Jeru the Damaja,
E-Dancer,
Shoche,
Scan 7,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Jacques Brel,
Adolescents,
Crash Course in Science,
Brothers Johnson,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Jandek,
Pylon,
The Tremeloes,
The Toasters,
Rites of Spring,
Toni Rubio,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Gap Band,
Sun City Girls,
Excepter,
Lebanon Hanover,
Los Fastidios,
Sarah Menescal,
Junior Murvin,
Susan Cadogan,
Camberwell Now,
Josef K,
Nils Olav,
Cheater Slicks,
Shuggie Otis,
ABBA,
Index,
The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds.
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.