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 Uganda and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1968 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Nile Rodgers 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 Dorothy Ashby to the techno 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 Bauhaus. All the underground hits.
All Jawbox tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Terry Callier 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a mellotron 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 spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Second Layer,
The Five Americans,
The Cure,
These Immortal Souls,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
E-Dancer,
Ludus,
Girls At Our Best!,
Agent Orange,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
X-101,
Blancmange,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Misunderstood,
48th St. Collective,
Fugazi,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Cowsills,
Japan,
Marvin Gaye,
Gong,
Rakim,
Joey Negro,
John Foxx,
Gichy Dan,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Excepter,
Eli Mardock,
Fluxion,
A Flock of Seagulls,
F. McDonald,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Zero Boys,
Lebanon Hanover,
Cybotron,
Derrick May,
Subhumans,
The Victims,
DJ Sneak,
The Sound,
Crispian St. Peters,
Harmonia,
Glenn Branca,
Morten Harket,
Yusef Lateef,
Ohio Players,
Prince Buster,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Raincoats,
Lee Hazlewood,
Bobby Hutcherson,
the Soft Cell,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Skarface,
China Crisis,
Brand Nubian,
Kaleidoscope,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.