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 Macedonia and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1963 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 the Swans to the jazz kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family. All the underground hits.
All Sparks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Warsaw 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jawbox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Avey Tare,
Blancmange,
Inner City,
Neu!,
Jeff Lynne,
Harpers Bizarre,
Susan Cadogan,
The Litter,
MC5,
Sun Ra,
Byron Stingily,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Archie Shepp,
Bill Wells,
The Velvet Underground,
Porter Ricks,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Human League,
the Soft Cell,
The Victims,
Marmalade,
Hasil Adkins,
Gang of Four,
Mission of Burma,
Peter and Kerry,
Absolute Body Control,
Roxy Music,
Talk Talk,
Wasted Youth,
Fugazi,
Minnie Riperton,
The Mummies,
Yaz,
Aswad,
Todd Rundgren,
Outsiders,
Fluxion,
the Normal,
Pierre Henry,
Young Marble Giants,
Aural Exciters,
Lou Reed,
Crash Course in Science,
H. Thieme,
Can,
Quadrant,
Index,
Rites of Spring,
Bizarre Inc.,
Monolake,
UT,
Moss Icon,
Section 25,
Bronski Beat,
The Raincoats,
Suburban Knight,
Sandy B,
Barbara Tucker,
Colin Newman,
Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat.
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.