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 Vanuatu and from Halifax.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 Holger Czukay 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 Human League to the grunge 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 Malaria!. All the underground hits.
All The Wake tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barrington Levy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Visage record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yusef Lateef,
Radio Birdman,
ABC,
Erykah Badu,
Gerry Rafferty,
Amazonics,
Man Eating Sloth,
Saccharine Trust,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Black Dice,
Peter & Gordon,
Bluetip,
Dawn Penn,
Quando Quango,
Symarip,
Essential Logic,
Leonard Cohen,
The Associates,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Music Machine,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Knickerbockers,
The Gladiators,
Marcia Griffiths,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Johnny Clarke,
The Monochrome Set,
Loose Ends,
The Vogues,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Divine Comedy,
Prince Buster,
Dennis Brown,
Delon & Dalcan,
Can,
Ponytail,
Nirvana,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Agitation Free,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Cramps,
Stereo Dub,
Excepter,
Bush Tetras,
Porter Ricks,
Hashim,
Hot Snakes,
The Gories,
Nik Kershaw,
Grauzone,
The Tremeloes,
The Dave Clark Five,
Joe Finger,
Wasted Youth,
The Leaves,
Bob Dylan,
The Beau Brummels,
The Five Americans,
Flipper,
The Seeds,
The Slits, The Slits, The Slits, The Slits.
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.