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 Senegal and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Cowsills. All the underground hits.
All Heaven 17 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joe Finger record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an oboe and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tim Buckley record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Fortunes,
Yusef Lateef,
The Smoke,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Doors,
Hoover,
Franke,
Trumans Water,
Unrelated Segments,
Soft Machine,
Make Up,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Motions,
Prince Buster,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Albert Ayler,
Kenny Larkin,
The Index,
Suburban Knight,
Fear,
the Germs,
Jacques Brel,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Donny Hathaway,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Second Layer,
Hasil Adkins,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Maleditus Sound,
Sex Pistols,
Big Daddy Kane,
X-Ray Spex,
Pantytec,
Symarip,
In Retrospect,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Darondo,
X-102,
Soul II Soul,
Wire,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Evens,
Kerri Chandler,
The Fuzztones,
MC5,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Blossom Toes,
Hashim,
Ronnie Foster,
MDC,
Andrew Hill,
The Moleskins,
The Misunderstood,
Stereo Dub,
Slave,
Section 25,
Piero Umiliani,
Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade.
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.