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 Belize and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 mellotron 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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Louis and Bebe Barron. All the underground hits.
All The Toasters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ornette Coleman 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Sonics record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Human League,
The Fall,
Bluetip,
Crispy Ambulance,
Hashim,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Black Dice,
Fear,
Easy Going,
Radiohead,
Half Japanese,
Khruangbin,
Rekid,
Sarah Menescal,
Ossler,
Robert Wyatt,
Joe Smooth,
The Moleskins,
Soul Sonic Force,
the Germs,
Colin Newman,
The Mojo Men,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Technova,
The Toasters,
Thee Headcoats,
Unwound,
Glenn Branca,
Fatback Band,
The Kinks,
Kaleidoscope,
Agitation Free,
DNA,
Blake Baxter,
Banda Bassotti,
The Saints,
Sugar Minott,
Max Romeo,
Warren Ellis,
Mantronix,
Dawn Penn,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Malaria!,
Rosa Yemen,
Eddi Front,
Livin' Joy,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Invisible,
Young Marble Giants,
Depeche Mode,
Alton Ellis,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Associates,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Joy Division,
Tears for Fears,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Busters,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Last Poets,
Patti Smith,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.