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 Fiji and from Manila.
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 1968 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers to the techno 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 Inner City. All the underground hits.
All Whodini tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Sheep 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tropical Tobacco record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swans,
Amon Düül,
Symarip,
Robert Hood,
Scan 7,
Curtis Mayfield,
Soft Cell,
Bizarre Inc.,
Con Funk Shun,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Sugar Minott,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Real Kids,
Laurel Aitken,
PIL,
Anthony Braxton,
Brand Nubian,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Sonic Youth,
The Fugs,
John Lydon,
Lungfish,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Josef K,
Whodini,
Mark Hollis,
The Move,
Animal Collective,
Circle Jerks,
the Swans,
Danielle Patucci,
The Monochrome Set,
Altered Images,
Quantec,
Vladislav Delay,
Surgeon,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Hoover,
Deepchord,
Glenn Branca,
Todd Rundgren,
The Associates,
Nils Olav,
Quadrant,
Pharoah Sanders,
Cymande,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Blake Baxter,
John Holt,
Bill Near,
Tears for Fears,
Kevin Saunderson,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Zero Boys,
Khruangbin,
Hashim,
Joy Division,
Procol Harum,
U.S. Maple,
Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction, Brass Construction.
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.