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 Ivory Coast and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the oboe 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 Prince Buster to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Suburban Knight tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Donny Hathaway record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kool G Rap & DJ Polo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zero Boys,
Stiv Bators,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Doobie Brothers,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Howard Jones,
Pulsallama,
The Fall,
Hashim,
Joey Negro,
Brand Nubian,
Von Mondo,
The Invisible,
The Sound,
Wire,
Laurel Aitken,
Crispian St. Peters,
KRS-One,
The Busters,
Crispy Ambulance,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Beau Brummels,
The Blues Magoos,
R.M.O.,
Agitation Free,
Lalo Schifrin,
Public Enemy,
Average White Band,
Traffic Nightmare,
The American Breed,
Fad Gadget,
Curtis Mayfield,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Gerry Rafferty,
the Association,
the Soft Cell,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Moody Blues,
The Cure,
These Immortal Souls,
Peter and Kerry,
Pantaleimon,
Absolute Body Control,
Gang Green,
Fela Kuti,
Peter & Gordon,
Q and Not U,
Nirvana,
The Mummies,
Stockholm Monsters,
Heaven 17,
Alice Coltrane,
Bush Tetras,
The Misunderstood,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Urselle,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Slits,
Excepter,
Banda Bassotti,
Black Flag,
Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne.
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.