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 Jamaica and from Milan.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the oboe 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 Throbbing Gristle to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The Cosmic Jokers. All the underground hits.
All Black Pus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Delta 5 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aloha Tigers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Soulsonic Force,
Jawbox,
Anthony Braxton,
Rhythm & Sound,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Chrome,
New York Dolls,
Pagans,
Motorama,
Wire,
Moss Icon,
Girls At Our Best!,
Camouflage,
Alice Coltrane,
Crispy Ambulance,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Searchers,
Nation of Ulysses,
Funkadelic,
Blossom Toes,
Al Stewart,
Rosa Yemen,
Sun Ra,
Robert Hood,
Gang Green,
Youth Brigade,
Maleditus Sound,
The Velvet Underground,
Animal Collective,
The Last Poets,
ABC,
Mantronix,
The Saints,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Black Sheep,
Boz Scaggs,
Mary Jane Girls,
Tom Boy,
Fat Boys,
Arthur Verocai,
Franke,
China Crisis,
The Happenings,
Erykah Badu,
Brass Construction,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Cymande,
Sugar Minott,
The Selecter,
Sight & Sound,
Harmonia,
Yazoo,
Unwound,
Sonic Youth,
Marcia Griffiths,
John Holt,
Supertramp,
Moby Grape,
the Swans,
Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood.
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.