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 Barbados and from Hong Kong.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
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 Alison Limerick to the funk 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 DNA. All the underground hits.
All Carl Craig tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cal Tjader record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sonic Youth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Slave,
Model 500,
L. Decosne,
Adolescents,
Depeche Mode,
Grey Daturas,
Can,
Porter Ricks,
The Mummies,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Gil Scott Heron,
Kayak,
Jesper Dahlback,
Nas,
The Cramps,
Metal Thangz,
Arab on Radar,
Sparks,
The Move,
Lebanon Hanover,
Darondo,
H. Thieme,
Johnny Clarke,
KRS-One,
Cecil Taylor,
Judy Mowatt,
Eli Mardock,
This Heat,
Buzzcocks,
F. McDonald,
Joey Negro,
EPMD,
Rufus Thomas,
The Durutti Column,
Freddie Wadling,
LL Cool J,
David Axelrod,
the Swans,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Martian,
Terrestrial Tones,
Rod Modell,
Popol Vuh,
Ronan,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Selecter,
Echospace,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Newcleus,
Gang Starr,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Standells,
Siglo XX,
FM Einheit,
The Young Rascals,
The Last Poets,
Swell Maps,
Todd Terry,
Scientists,
Max Romeo,
Ludus, Ludus, Ludus, Ludus.
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.