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 Bolivia and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the oboe 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 Rod Modell to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 F. McDonald. All the underground hits.
All Kaleidoscope tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mission of Burma record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 spring reverb and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Young Marble Giants record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Stooges,
Second Layer,
Robert Wyatt,
Sugar Minott,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Traffic Nightmare,
Shuggie Otis,
Jesper Dahlback,
E-Dancer,
Swell Maps,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ludus,
Lungfish,
Marvin Gaye,
The Misunderstood,
Icehouse,
Lou Christie,
Pere Ubu,
The Cramps,
These Immortal Souls,
Freddie Wadling,
Faust,
Intrusion,
Tommy Roe,
Black Flag,
Letta Mbulu,
Das Ding,
Motorama,
Eurythmics,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
the Sonics,
The Standells,
Tres Demented,
The Toasters,
Donald Byrd,
Buzzcocks,
Zero Boys,
Au Pairs,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Dead C,
Newcleus,
R.M.O.,
Infiniti,
Andrew Hill,
Bauhaus,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Masters at Work,
Glenn Branca,
Eric Dolphy,
Aloha Tigers,
MC5,
Eli Mardock,
Spoonie Gee,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Drive Like Jehu,
Gregory Isaacs,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Echospace,
Porter Ricks,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Eden Ahbez,
The Residents,
Toni Rubio, Toni Rubio, Toni Rubio, Toni Rubio.
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.