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 St Lucia and from Shanghai.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
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 Girls At Our Best! to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Aural Exciters. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Average White Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 marimba and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soul Sonic Force,
X-101,
Scientists,
Marcia Griffiths,
Gang Gang Dance,
Lucky Dragons,
New Order,
The Victims,
Bush Tetras,
B.T. Express,
Groovy Waters,
Wolf Eyes,
Lou Reed,
48th St. Collective,
Soulsonic Force,
Delta 5,
The Searchers,
Pantaleimon,
The Raincoats,
Cybotron,
The Shadows of Knight,
Motorama,
Half Japanese,
Con Funk Shun,
MC5,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Cecil Taylor,
Whodini,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Altered Images,
Wire,
Fear,
The Kinks,
Smog,
Scan 7,
Thompson Twins,
Yusef Lateef,
Jawbox,
Ice-T,
Procol Harum,
Susan Cadogan,
PIL,
The Cure,
Lungfish,
The Walker Brothers,
Liliput,
The Dirtbombs,
Boz Scaggs,
Maleditus Sound,
Gregory Isaacs,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Gun Club,
The Beau Brummels,
The Offenders,
Easy Going,
These Immortal Souls,
Blossom Toes,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Fire Engines,
China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis.
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.