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 Cape Verde and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Bremen.
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 Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Pussy Galore to the jazz 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 Pere Ubu. All the underground hits.
All Radiohead tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Zeros 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sarah Menescal record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joe Smooth,
Black Pus,
Banda Bassotti,
Jeru the Damaja,
Excepter,
Popol Vuh,
Leonard Cohen,
Aural Exciters,
Letta Mbulu,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Monolake,
The Smiths,
the Bar-Kays,
Skarface,
Prince Buster,
Anthony Braxton,
Traffic Nightmare,
FM Einheit,
Suicide,
Blossom Toes,
Royal Trux,
New Order,
Bobby Womack,
PIL,
Cheater Slicks,
Barclay James Harvest,
Soul Sonic Force,
Los Fastidios,
Animal Collective,
Quando Quango,
the Normal,
Charles Mingus,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Standells,
Von Mondo,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Marcia Griffiths,
Pierre Henry,
Urselle,
The Happenings,
Visage,
Minny Pops,
Blake Baxter,
Circle Jerks,
Lindisfarne,
David McCallum,
Q and Not U,
Mantronix,
Roger Hodgson,
Howard Jones,
Juan Atkins,
Arthur Verocai,
Nils Olav,
Derrick May,
The Tremeloes,
The Victims,
Bluetip,
The Slackers,
Unrelated Segments,
Tomorrow,
Eric B and Rakim,
This Heat,
One Last Wish, One Last Wish, One Last Wish, One Last Wish.
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.