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 San Marino and from Portland.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Cairo.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 The Golliwogs to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Selector Dub Narcotic. All the underground hits.
All Kerrie Biddell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sarah Menescal record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a JFA record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Fluxion,
Quando Quango,
The J.B.'s,
Rod Modell,
Rakim,
The Seeds,
Sixth Finger,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Jacob Miller,
Sonic Youth,
Dual Sessions,
X-Ray Spex,
The Toasters,
Circle Jerks,
Gerry Rafferty,
the Bar-Kays,
Index,
Cal Tjader,
Audionom,
Inner City,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Byron Stingily,
Scion,
Warren Ellis,
Tears for Fears,
Kas Product,
Roxy Music,
The Gun Club,
Clear Light,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Jesper Dahlback,
One Last Wish,
Hardrive,
Magazine,
Jerry's Kids,
Junior Murvin,
Reagan Youth,
A Flock of Seagulls,
MC5,
Lou Christie,
The Fuzztones,
Kerri Chandler,
ABC,
Prince Buster,
David Axelrod,
Ohio Players,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Sonics,
The Fall,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Black Pus,
Underground Resistance,
Ralphi Rosario,
Cecil Taylor,
Jacques Brel,
The Beau Brummels,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.