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 East Timor and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Ronnie Foster to the electroclash 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 Pere Ubu. All the underground hits.
All Theoretical Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Neil Young 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Wyatt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Babytalk,
Moss Icon,
L. Decosne,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Cal Tjader,
David McCallum,
K-Klass,
Essential Logic,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Laurel Aitken,
Hoover,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Roger Hodgson,
Cameo,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Gastr Del Sol,
Letta Mbulu,
Barry Ungar,
Blake Baxter,
Subhumans,
Josef K,
Wire,
Aloha Tigers,
Boz Scaggs,
The Stooges,
DNA,
PIL,
Los Fastidios,
Soft Machine,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Motions,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
These Immortal Souls,
Fela Kuti,
Radiopuhelimet,
Eden Ahbez,
Todd Terry,
Flipper,
Chris & Cosey,
Jawbox,
The Walker Brothers,
Outsiders,
Matthew Bourne,
Lakeside,
Negative Approach,
Quantec,
Lee Hazlewood,
Barrington Levy,
The Selecter,
The Moleskins,
Brass Construction,
Sam Rivers,
Joy Division,
Reagan Youth,
Barclay James Harvest,
Deakin,
Tommy Roe,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Sister Nancy,
Hashim,
Swans, Swans, Swans, Swans.
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.