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 Sierra Leone and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Woodstock.
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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 This Heat to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sparks. All the underground hits.
All The Offenders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Los Fastidios 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Vladislav Delay,
Hot Snakes,
The Blackbyrds,
Saccharine Trust,
Blossom Toes,
Alice Coltrane,
Duran Duran,
Quantec,
Ice-T,
Half Japanese,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Mary Jane Girls,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Magazine,
Mission of Burma,
Aural Exciters,
Soft Cell,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Althea and Donna,
The J.B.'s,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Rod Modell,
The Vogues,
Soul Sonic Force,
Dead Boys,
The Smoke,
Bluetip,
New Order,
Robert Hood,
Carl Craig,
Sexual Harrassment,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Qualms,
Cal Tjader,
These Immortal Souls,
Boogie Down Productions,
Model 500,
The Count Five,
8 Eyed Spy,
Kevin Saunderson,
Man Parrish,
R.M.O.,
Susan Cadogan,
Bill Wells,
Joy Division,
Agitation Free,
Excepter,
John Foxx,
Tres Demented,
Bang On A Can,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Warsaw,
The Leaves,
Sun Ra,
PIL,
The Names,
Erykah Badu,
Black Pus,
Eric Copeland,
Faraquet,
Neil Young, Neil Young, Neil Young, Neil Young.
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.