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 Tanzania and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the clarinet 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 The Dirtbombs to the jazz 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 Golliwogs. All the underground hits.
All The Durutti Column tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Echo & the Bunnymen record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 snare and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fluxion,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Fela Kuti,
The Monochrome Set,
Nick Fraelich,
Dark Day,
Junior Murvin,
The Doors,
John Lydon,
Joe Smooth,
Avey Tare,
Bobby Womack,
Pere Ubu,
Bobby Byrd,
Japan,
Desert Stars,
Bobby Sherman,
Black Sheep,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Marcia Griffiths,
OOIOO,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Dawn Penn,
Oneida,
The Wake,
The Smoke,
The Stooges,
Massinfluence,
Barrington Levy,
Lyres,
Barry Ungar,
Matthew Bourne,
Jeff Mills,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Althea and Donna,
Prince Buster,
La Düsseldorf,
The Blackbyrds,
Youth Brigade,
The Toasters,
Gang Gang Dance,
Nation of Ulysses,
Iggy Pop,
Donny Hathaway,
Wire,
Nas,
FM Einheit,
Neil Young,
The United States of America,
The Durutti Column,
Scott Walker,
The Golliwogs,
H. Thieme,
The Litter,
Isaac Hayes,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Searchers,
U.S. Maple,
Arab on Radar,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes.
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.