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 Panama and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
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 June of 44 to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Charles Mingus. All the underground hits.
All Strawberry Alarm Clock tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Graham Central Station 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Country Teasers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Near,
DJ Sneak,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Flipper,
Average White Band,
Minnie Riperton,
Pantytec,
This Heat,
Byron Stingily,
Cecil Taylor,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Camouflage,
Wire,
Warsaw,
Janne Schatter,
Essential Logic,
The Gories,
The Pretty Things,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Pet Shop Boys,
Sam Rivers,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Eli Mardock,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Glenn Branca,
Khruangbin,
Jeff Mills,
Man Eating Sloth,
David Axelrod,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Sun Ra,
Sex Pistols,
The Offenders,
Pere Ubu,
the Bar-Kays,
Eurythmics,
Jandek,
Mantronix,
John Holt,
The Doobie Brothers,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Zero Boys,
Ronnie Foster,
Albert Ayler,
Deakin,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Tres Demented,
Jeru the Damaja,
Schoolly D,
Sixth Finger,
Gregory Isaacs,
Soul II Soul,
Cheater Slicks,
Cluster,
The Alarm Clocks,
Youth Brigade,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Buzzcocks,
Henry Cow,
Crooked Eye,
Juan Atkins,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun, Con Funk Shun.
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.