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 Rwanda and from Delhi.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 rhodes 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 Bobby Byrd to the punk 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 Jandek. All the underground hits.
All Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Chocolate Watch Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Barracudas 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?
Moebius,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
the Normal,
Rites of Spring,
The Red Krayola,
Lou Reed,
Ornette Coleman,
The Five Americans,
Jacques Brel,
Scrapy,
The Pretty Things,
Fad Gadget,
Anakelly,
The Gories,
Mr. Review,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Pantaleimon,
Bizarre Inc.,
Adolescents,
Essential Logic,
Harpers Bizarre,
Slick Rick,
Heaven 17,
a-ha,
The Dave Clark Five,
UT,
Mission of Burma,
Parry Music,
Shoche,
Delta 5,
Gang of Four,
the Slits,
Blossom Toes,
Wasted Youth,
Masters at Work,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Durutti Column,
Second Layer,
Camouflage,
the Sonics,
Lucky Dragons,
The Mojo Men,
Eden Ahbez,
The Move,
Visage,
The Beau Brummels,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
David Bowie,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Kaleidoscope,
Symarip,
Colin Newman,
Q65,
K-Klass,
The Doors,
Bronski Beat,
Warren Ellis,
Fatback Band,
Todd Rundgren,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Index,
Radio Birdman,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers.
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.