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 Seychelles and from Johannesburg.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 guitar 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 Major Organ And The Adding Machine to the jazz 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 It's A Beautiful Day. All the underground hits.
All In Retrospect tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Starr 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Altered Images record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cymande,
Scott Walker,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Fatback Band,
T.S.O.L.,
Wasted Youth,
Bronski Beat,
Unrelated Segments,
Slave,
Rosa Yemen,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Roger Hodgson,
Ice-T,
Joe Smooth,
The Shadows of Knight,
Ludus,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Red Krayola,
Japan,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Soul II Soul,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Avey Tare,
The Fugs,
Barrington Levy,
Rites of Spring,
Soft Machine,
Shoche,
Jerry's Kids,
Khruangbin,
Con Funk Shun,
Tubeway Army,
Crooked Eye,
Quadrant,
Black Bananas,
Cecil Taylor,
The Slackers,
Lindisfarne,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
B.T. Express,
Alphaville,
Cybotron,
MC5,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Invisible,
Sandy B,
The Blackbyrds,
The Dave Clark Five,
Jeff Lynne,
Morten Harket,
Sight & Sound,
Prince Buster,
Faust,
Albert Ayler,
Marmalade,
Ten City,
Dennis Brown,
Bill Wells,
the Swans,
Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk.
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.