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 Nicaragua and from Jakarta.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Hashim 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 The Happenings. All the underground hits.
All The Velvet Underground tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Average White Band,
China Crisis,
Popol Vuh,
These Immortal Souls,
Newcleus,
The Golliwogs,
Brass Construction,
The Alarm Clocks,
A Certain Ratio,
Letta Mbulu,
Alton Ellis,
Can,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Black Dice,
Monks,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Mark Hollis,
the Normal,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Bronski Beat,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Cramps,
Siglo XX,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
KRS-One,
Q and Not U,
Ice-T,
Nils Olav,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Stooges,
Darondo,
The Offenders,
Leonard Cohen,
Bill Near,
New Order,
Rosa Yemen,
Pierre Henry,
AZ,
The Seeds,
Blancmange,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Slick Rick,
Charles Mingus,
Fugazi,
Angry Samoans,
Junior Murvin,
Tomorrow,
Bizarre Inc.,
Joy Division,
Cybotron,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Quantec,
Henry Cow,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Man Parrish,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Grass Roots,
Bauhaus,
Scientists,
Urselle,
Scion, Scion, Scion, Scion.
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.