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 Congo and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
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 Aural Exciters to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Hot Snakes. All the underground hits.
All Second Layer tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang on a Can All-Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Count Five record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fugazi,
Prince Buster,
Sun Ra,
These Immortal Souls,
Faust,
PIL,
Tubeway Army,
Easy Going,
Robert Hood,
Delon & Dalcan,
Swans,
The Knickerbockers,
Bobby Byrd,
The Index,
Ponytail,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Selecter,
Godley & Creme,
Colin Newman,
Jimmy McGriff,
Essential Logic,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Outsiders,
Bauhaus,
The Gun Club,
Big Daddy Kane,
Lou Christie,
Sällskapet,
Joe Smooth,
Crispy Ambulance,
T.S.O.L.,
Ornette Coleman,
Althea and Donna,
Half Japanese,
The Cure,
Suicide,
Gil Scott Heron,
Stereo Dub,
Agitation Free,
DJ Style,
Shuggie Otis,
The Black Dice,
World's Most,
Q and Not U,
KRS-One,
The Misunderstood,
Vainqueur,
Accadde A,
Mad Mike,
Michelle Simonal,
The Barracudas,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Dawn Penn,
The Slits,
The Blackbyrds,
In Retrospect,
Eve St. Jones,
Sex Pistols,
Index,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Laurel Aitken,
Minnie Riperton, Minnie Riperton, Minnie Riperton, Minnie Riperton.
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.