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 Bulgaria and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the organ 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 Rites of Spring to the funk 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 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks. All the underground hits.
All Easy Going 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
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 Soul II Soul record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Grass Roots,
The Fuzztones,
Funky Four + One,
Buzzcocks,
Morten Harket,
Tim Buckley,
Ice-T,
Alice Coltrane,
The Evens,
Television,
Joe Smooth,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Moleskins,
the Slits,
Colin Newman,
Deakin,
The Victims,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Livin' Joy,
Agent Orange,
Fluxion,
Swell Maps,
Maleditus Sound,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Slackers,
Donny Hathaway,
the Bar-Kays,
Prince Buster,
Freddie Wadling,
Goldenarms,
Ponytail,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
8 Eyed Spy,
Wolf Eyes,
Piero Umiliani,
Unwound,
Yazoo,
Quantec,
The Litter,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Jawbox,
Crispy Ambulance,
In Retrospect,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Wire,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Aaron Thompson,
Magma,
Brick,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Moebius,
Scientists,
The Motions,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Loose Ends,
John Coltrane,
Deadbeat,
Lou Christie,
The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs.
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.