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 Nepal and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 PIL to the dance 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 Barbara Tucker. All the underground hits.
All Lakeside tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lonnie Liston Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun City Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rod Modell,
Hasil Adkins,
Sarah Menescal,
Fad Gadget,
Smog,
Grauzone,
Joyce Sims,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Soul II Soul,
The Real Kids,
The Velvet Underground,
The Red Krayola,
Moby Grape,
Fear,
The Associates,
Scrapy,
Heaven 17,
The Offenders,
Bob Dylan,
The Blackbyrds,
EPMD,
Gang Green,
The Slits,
Al Stewart,
Shoche,
Sonic Youth,
Negative Approach,
Yellowson,
Charles Mingus,
World's Most,
Tears for Fears,
Avey Tare,
The Leaves,
The Move,
Eric B and Rakim,
Byron Stingily,
The Selecter,
The Zeros,
Black Flag,
Althea and Donna,
Unwound,
Youth Brigade,
Man Eating Sloth,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Severed Heads,
Roy Ayers,
Swell Maps,
Make Up,
UT,
Livin' Joy,
X-102,
Country Teasers,
Babytalk,
Albert Ayler,
Mission of Burma,
This Heat,
Crime,
Pere Ubu,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Durutti Column,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.