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 Syria and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Swell Maps to the rap kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The Skatalites. All the underground hits.
All David Bowie 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 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 an arpeggiator and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nation of Ulysses record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blancmange,
the Normal,
Donny Hathaway,
The Electric Prunes,
The Monochrome Set,
Minutemen,
Jeff Lynne,
Pharoah Sanders,
The New Christs,
Mars,
The Residents,
Soul Sonic Force,
Peter and Kerry,
The Alarm Clocks,
Wolf Eyes,
Carl Craig,
The Raincoats,
The Sound,
Jeru the Damaja,
Pagans,
Mission of Burma,
China Crisis,
The Index,
Pussy Galore,
Flipper,
Sam Rivers,
Roxette,
The Gun Club,
Jacques Brel,
Deakin,
Boz Scaggs,
The Fugs,
Radiopuhelimet,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Can,
Sister Nancy,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Grass Roots,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Standells,
Roger Hodgson,
Bronski Beat,
Peter & Gordon,
Rapeman,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Todd Rundgren,
The Invisible,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Tremeloes,
Bob Dylan,
ABC,
Derrick May,
Scion,
Magazine,
Soft Cell,
Urselle,
Throbbing Gristle,
Don Cherry,
New Age Steppers,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Victims, The Victims, The Victims, The Victims.
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.