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 Austria and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Liliput to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Popol Vuh. All the underground hits.
All Jesper Dahlbäck tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James Chance & The Contortions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a John Cale record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mark Hollis,
Talk Talk,
Yazoo,
the Swans,
Youth Brigade,
Terry Callier,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Trojans,
Fat Boys,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Ornette Coleman,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Smog,
The Skatalites,
Section 25,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Lightning Bolt,
Sight & Sound,
Colin Newman,
The Gap Band,
Toni Rubio,
The Electric Prunes,
Curtis Mayfield,
Marshall Jefferson,
Delon & Dalcan,
the Soft Cell,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Liliput,
Crispian St. Peters,
Darondo,
Khruangbin,
Rosa Yemen,
Roxette,
Rod Modell,
Jeff Mills,
the Human League,
Amon Düül II,
Spoonie Gee,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
LL Cool J,
AZ,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Chrome,
These Immortal Souls,
Black Flag,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Susan Cadogan,
Charles Mingus,
Con Funk Shun,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Smiths,
Interpol,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Swans,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Albert Ayler,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Pussy Galore,
Graham Central Station,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Scott Walker,
Kevin Saunderson,
Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus.
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.