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 East Timor and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1966 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 The Blackbyrds to the rock 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 The Smoke. All the underground hits.
All Eric Dolphy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Last Poets record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Motorama record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gap Band,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Crispy Ambulance,
Eli Mardock,
the Normal,
Shoche,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Arab on Radar,
The Trojans,
Rites of Spring,
The Fugs,
Public Enemy,
Gregory Isaacs,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Ronnie Foster,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Scientists,
Audionom,
The Pop Group,
The Barracudas,
Moby Grape,
Wolf Eyes,
Deepchord,
The Dead C,
The Star Department,
The Move,
Maleditus Sound,
Young Marble Giants,
Moebius,
Saccharine Trust,
the Swans,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Camberwell Now,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Vogues,
Trumans Water,
Harpers Bizarre,
D'Angelo,
Magma,
In Retrospect,
Sarah Menescal,
Easy Going,
Michelle Simonal,
Ken Boothe,
Youth Brigade,
Outsiders,
Ice-T,
OOIOO,
Bizarre Inc.,
Harry Pussy,
Nas,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Fluxion,
The Mummies,
Cybotron,
Yaz,
Stockholm Monsters,
Amon Düül,
Bobby Byrd,
Maurizio,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Donny Hathaway,
Henry Cow, Henry Cow, Henry Cow, Henry Cow.
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.