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 Guatemala and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Ralphi Rosario to the grunge 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 The Dave Clark Five. All the underground hits.
All Prince Buster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yazoo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Clarke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Unwound,
Fear,
Whodini,
Dave Gahan,
Sixth Finger,
Minor Threat,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Bill Near,
Vainqueur,
New York Dolls,
T.S.O.L.,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Johnny Clarke,
Quantec,
Robert Hood,
Little Man,
The Blues Magoos,
Aaron Thompson,
The Walker Brothers,
Radiopuhelimet,
Panda Bear,
Crispy Ambulance,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
June Days,
Tropical Tobacco,
Clear Light,
Marc Almond,
Pagans,
Robert Görl,
The Barracudas,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Faraquet,
Franke,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Five Americans,
K-Klass,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Gil Scott Heron,
Thompson Twins,
Audionom,
Surgeon,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The United States of America,
Reagan Youth,
Soft Machine,
Howard Jones,
Girls At Our Best!,
Blancmange,
Ludus,
X-102,
PIL,
Bootsy Collins,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Chrome,
Malaria!,
The Durutti Column,
Warsaw,
Basic Channel,
Black Pus,
Niagra,
Dual Sessions, Dual Sessions, Dual Sessions, Dual Sessions.
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.