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 Tanzania and from Portland.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Lalann to the rock 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 Livin' Joy. All the underground hits.
All Eve St. Jones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Half Japanese 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 mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a OOIOO record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Human League,
Crooked Eye,
Heaven 17,
Deakin,
Gang Green,
Black Sheep,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Absolute Body Control,
Mo-Dettes,
Neu!,
UT,
The Skatalites,
Marshall Jefferson,
the Sonics,
Malaria!,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Fear,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Y Pants,
The Blues Magoos,
E-Dancer,
Toni Rubio,
Visage,
Mary Jane Girls,
Average White Band,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Infiniti,
Gichy Dan,
Trumans Water,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Panda Bear,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Gun Club,
Skaos,
Outsiders,
the Soft Cell,
Colin Newman,
Roger Hodgson,
Michelle Simonal,
Talk Talk,
The Techniques,
The Gladiators,
Sam Rivers,
Underground Resistance,
The Cure,
Godley & Creme,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Chris & Cosey,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Neil Young,
The Fire Engines,
The Slits,
Blossom Toes,
The Barracudas,
Lebanon Hanover,
Letta Mbulu,
These Immortal Souls,
Ice-T,
Angry Samoans,
The Dave Clark Five,
Fela Kuti,
Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman.
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.