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 Djibouti and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Negative Approach to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fatback Band. All the underground hits.
All Patti Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every B.T. Express record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Livin' Joy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Newcleus,
the Slits,
Hot Snakes,
Judy Mowatt,
T.S.O.L.,
Todd Rundgren,
Adolescents,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Cowsills,
Jesper Dahlback,
Jeff Lynne,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Wally Richardson,
The Raincoats,
Flipper,
LL Cool J,
Erykah Badu,
Soft Cell,
Faust,
Johnny Osbourne,
Slave,
Organ,
Jeff Mills,
Jacques Brel,
The Moody Blues,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Easy Going,
Shuggie Otis,
Dorothy Ashby,
Talk Talk,
Letta Mbulu,
Pylon,
Guru Guru,
X-101,
Pussy Galore,
Davy DMX,
Wings,
Big Daddy Kane,
Nick Fraelich,
Cecil Taylor,
Swell Maps,
Dawn Penn,
Black Bananas,
Kenny Larkin,
Interpol,
Donny Hathaway,
The Gories,
Moebius,
Little Man,
The Busters,
Slick Rick,
Sällskapet,
Aural Exciters,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Erasure,
Idris Muhammad,
Mr. Review,
Agitation Free,
Scion,
Aloha Tigers,
Lungfish,
The Knickerbockers,
Sixth Finger,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.