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 Belgium and from Portland.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the clarinet 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 The Monochrome Set to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Arthur Verocai. All the underground hits.
All One Last Wish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Association record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barclay James Harvest,
The Moody Blues,
Surgeon,
Skarface,
ABC,
Sparks,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Divine Comedy,
Mandrill,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Quantec,
The American Breed,
Rakim,
The Doors,
The Detroit Cobras,
Ornette Coleman,
Altered Images,
Arcadia,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Gabor Szabo,
Kevin Saunderson,
James Chance & The Contortions,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Hashim,
Suicide,
These Immortal Souls,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Motions,
The Fugs,
T.S.O.L.,
Anthony Braxton,
Quadrant,
Girls At Our Best!,
Tubeway Army,
Jeff Mills,
Robert Hood,
Dual Sessions,
The Gun Club,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Slits,
Marine Girls,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Panda Bear,
Barrington Levy,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Warren Ellis,
OOIOO,
the Human League,
Aural Exciters,
Charles Mingus,
Ludus,
Crooked Eye,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Associates,
The Star Department,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Cowsills,
Eve St. Jones,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Fugazi,
The Tremeloes,
Scratch Acid,
Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat.
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.