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 South Sudan and from Sao Paulo.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the snare 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 Arthur Verocai to the rock kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Eli Mardock. All the underground hits.
All Banda Bassotti tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Wyatt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Althea and Donna record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wally Richardson,
Johnny Clarke,
Spandau Ballet,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Dark Day,
Susan Cadogan,
the Soft Cell,
Radio Birdman,
Model 500,
Intrusion,
The Skatalites,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Cal Tjader,
Technova,
Juan Atkins,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Bobby Byrd,
Chris Corsano,
The Doobie Brothers,
Boogie Down Productions,
Pagans,
The Golliwogs,
The Black Dice,
the Normal,
Buzzcocks,
Make Up,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Maleditus Sound,
The Misunderstood,
Marc Almond,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Y Pants,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Matthew Halsall,
Organ,
Jeff Lynne,
Tom Boy,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Drexciya,
Young Marble Giants,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Velvet Underground,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Monks,
Crooked Eye,
Black Flag,
Pierre Henry,
The Offenders,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Ludus,
New Age Steppers,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Hardrive,
Circle Jerks,
Terrestrial Tones,
Wolf Eyes,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Soulsonic Force,
Suicide,
Alice Coltrane,
Pere Ubu,
Malaria!,
a-ha, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha.
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.