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 Thailand and from Tokyo.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Toronto.
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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the marimba 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 Kaleidoscope to the crunk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Hot Snakes. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Womack record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Blackbyrds,
The Evens,
Basic Channel,
The Move,
Blancmange,
8 Eyed Spy,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Fuzztones,
Outsiders,
Rod Modell,
Scion,
The Alarm Clocks,
Drexciya,
Roxette,
World's Most,
Howard Jones,
The Durutti Column,
Juan Atkins,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Lower 48,
Isaac Hayes,
Grandmaster Flash,
Bang On A Can,
Banda Bassotti,
Section 25,
Monks,
Funky Four + One,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Rosa Yemen,
The Martian,
FM Einheit,
Erykah Badu,
the Swans,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Nick Fraelich,
The Last Poets,
Byron Stingily,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Gastr Del Sol,
Anthony Braxton,
Can,
Brick,
Average White Band,
the Germs,
Altered Images,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Mojo Men,
Crime,
The Smoke,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Janne Schatter,
Swans,
The Moleskins,
Vainqueur,
Quadrant,
Subhumans,
Connie Case,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Gang of Four,
Beasts of Bourbon,
MC5,
Talk Talk,
Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell.
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.