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 Sierra Leone and from Glasgow.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Seoul.
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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Seeds to the punk 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 U.S. Maple. All the underground hits.
All Alice Coltrane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marvin Gaye record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zero Boys,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Bad Manners,
PIL,
The Count Five,
Amon Düül II,
Junior Murvin,
Agitation Free,
Kurtis Blow,
Swans,
Mandrill,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Aaron Thompson,
Cal Tjader,
Bizarre Inc.,
Khruangbin,
ABC,
Ice-T,
Derrick May,
Eli Mardock,
Porter Ricks,
June of 44,
Scratch Acid,
The Zeros,
Ralphi Rosario,
the Normal,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Moleskins,
Brothers Johnson,
Sister Nancy,
Sixth Finger,
Michelle Simonal,
The Seeds,
The J.B.'s,
Faust,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Eric B and Rakim,
Johnny Osbourne,
Skriet,
Cymande,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Sonny Sharrock,
DNA,
Circle Jerks,
Interpol,
David Bowie,
UT,
Cecil Taylor,
Mad Mike,
Tommy Roe,
Television,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Tim Buckley,
Underground Resistance,
Brand Nubian,
Barrington Levy,
Stockholm Monsters,
Anakelly,
The Wake,
Leonard Cohen,
the Human League,
The Birthday Party, The Birthday Party, The Birthday Party, The Birthday Party.
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.