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 Mauritania and from Tokyo.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Brand Nubian to the disco kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Joy Division. All the underground hits.
All Adolescents tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every De La Soul & Jungle Brothers 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 The Real Kids record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Anakelly,
Maleditus Sound,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Procol Harum,
Hasil Adkins,
Lightning Bolt,
Gang Gang Dance,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Electric Prunes,
Althea and Donna,
Underground Resistance,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Aural Exciters,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Barrington Levy,
Quadrant,
Cybotron,
Warren Ellis,
Radio Birdman,
Dorothy Ashby,
Cal Tjader,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Howard Jones,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Judy Mowatt,
the Association,
John Lydon,
Dennis Brown,
Intrusion,
Second Layer,
Joensuu 1685,
DJ Sneak,
Radiohead,
L. Decosne,
Motorama,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Neil Young,
Siglo XX,
Ornette Coleman,
Joe Finger,
OOIOO,
Terrestrial Tones,
Tommy Roe,
Chrome,
The Skatalites,
X-Ray Spex,
Scion,
Pylon,
Joe Smooth,
Lou Christie,
Gang of Four,
Soft Machine,
Country Teasers,
Soulsonic Force,
The Stooges,
John Foxx,
Harry Pussy,
Crooked Eye,
The Detroit Cobras,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Lalann,
The Monks, The Monks, The Monks, The Monks.
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.