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 Canada and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
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 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark to the techno 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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Pole tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every MC5 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grandmaster Flash record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lower 48,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Walker Brothers,
Panda Bear,
John Lydon,
Moby Grape,
Aaron Thompson,
Swans,
Livin' Joy,
Quadrant,
Adolescents,
Rakim,
Organ,
MC5,
Alison Limerick,
Tres Demented,
Television Personalities,
Can,
James White and The Blacks,
Bobby Byrd,
Lalo Schifrin,
Ultra Naté,
Tomorrow,
Joensuu 1685,
Minnie Riperton,
CMW,
Jeff Mills,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sonic Youth,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Avey Tare,
Electric Prunes,
Crash Course in Science,
Steve Hackett,
The Human League,
Symarip,
Ponytail,
Rekid,
X-102,
Angry Samoans,
Radiopuhelimet,
Von Mondo,
Ten City,
Babytalk,
This Heat,
Tommy Roe,
Bootsy Collins,
Crime,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Thompson Twins,
Animal Collective,
Tropical Tobacco,
John Holt,
The Blues Magoos,
Flipper,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
K-Klass,
Marvin Gaye,
The Pretty Things,
Pharoah Sanders,
EPMD,
Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye.
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.