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 Mozambique and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the guitar 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 Dark Day to the crunk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Slackers. All the underground hits.
All Livin' Joy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bootsy's Rubber Band 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The J.B.'s record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scrapy,
Interpol,
Spandau Ballet,
Matthew Bourne,
Joyce Sims,
The Dave Clark Five,
Zapp,
Organ,
The Cowsills,
Sugar Minott,
Laurel Aitken,
Eve St. Jones,
La Düsseldorf,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Ossler,
New Age Steppers,
Livin' Joy,
Dorothy Ashby,
Jeru the Damaja,
Archie Shepp,
Bauhaus,
Essential Logic,
The Dead C,
Warren Ellis,
Glenn Branca,
Easy Going,
The Birthday Party,
Sun Ra,
Simply Red,
Avey Tare,
Nation of Ulysses,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Wake,
The Toasters,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Oneida,
The Sisters of Mercy,
China Crisis,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Eric Dolphy,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Deakin,
LL Cool J,
X-102,
Nirvana,
Television,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Faraquet,
Maleditus Sound,
The Alarm Clocks,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Lyres,
Scientists,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Minnie Riperton,
Warsaw,
Roxy Music,
Al Stewart,
Juan Atkins,
Robert Hood,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.