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 Equatorial Guinea and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 arpeggiator 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 Absolute Body Control to the jazz kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Dorothy Ashby. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Underground Resistance record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Quando Quango record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scion,
The Fire Engines,
Frankie Knuckles,
Visage,
Boz Scaggs,
The Knickerbockers,
Black Pus,
Inner City,
One Last Wish,
MC5,
Von Mondo,
AZ,
Janne Schatter,
Hoover,
Mr. Review,
Gichy Dan,
the Soft Cell,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Chrome,
F. McDonald,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Carl Craig,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Dirtbombs,
Silicon Teens,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Mummies,
Judy Mowatt,
Country Teasers,
Public Enemy,
Johnny Clarke,
Anthony Braxton,
The Pretty Things,
Das Ding,
Todd Terry,
Fad Gadget,
In Retrospect,
Youth Brigade,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Standells,
X-102,
Q65,
Crispian St. Peters,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Soul II Soul,
Eric Copeland,
Rites of Spring,
Connie Case,
Crime,
Deakin,
The J.B.'s,
The Names,
Marmalade,
Second Layer,
Glambeats Corp.,
Barclay James Harvest,
ABBA,
Tomorrow,
The Blues Magoos,
Brothers Johnson,
MDC,
Television Personalities, Television Personalities, Television Personalities, Television Personalities.
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.