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 Georgia and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 oboe 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 Delta 5 to the disco 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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family. All the underground hits.
All Delta 5 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & Metallica record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bad Manners record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
X-102,
Stereo Dub,
the Slits,
Pulsallama,
Max Romeo,
Fela Kuti,
Don Cherry,
Soul Sonic Force,
China Crisis,
Heaven 17,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Sexual Harrassment,
Rekid,
The Smoke,
Stockholm Monsters,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Pere Ubu,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Q and Not U,
Severed Heads,
Kaleidoscope,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
R.M.O.,
Sugar Minott,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Warsaw,
The Doobie Brothers,
Chris & Cosey,
The Dead C,
The Fire Engines,
Sam Rivers,
Cameo,
Marshall Jefferson,
Model 500,
Blossom Toes,
Eurythmics,
Von Mondo,
Guru Guru,
Fatback Band,
Cabaret Voltaire,
John Cale,
Deakin,
Robert Hood,
The Young Rascals,
Sun Ra,
Wally Richardson,
The Leaves,
Aural Exciters,
Depeche Mode,
Ornette Coleman,
The Fall,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Darondo,
Roy Ayers,
Rufus Thomas,
Underground Resistance,
Avey Tare,
Sällskapet,
Kas Product, Kas Product, Kas Product, Kas Product.
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.