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 Maldives and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 synthesizer 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 Desert Stars to the rap 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 Section 25. All the underground hits.
All The Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Strawberry Alarm Clock 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 '70s 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 Au Pairs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Offenders,
Index,
Joe Finger,
Bluetip,
Mad Mike,
Reuben Wilson,
Scott Walker,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Pere Ubu,
Bobby Womack,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Dorothy Ashby,
Kas Product,
K-Klass,
The Real Kids,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Deakin,
Arthur Verocai,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Gong,
Marine Girls,
The Walker Brothers,
Crash Course in Science,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Gories,
Television Personalities,
Buzzcocks,
Zapp,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Oblivians,
Jawbox,
Camberwell Now,
The Sonics,
Moebius,
Average White Band,
The Music Machine,
Brick,
X-101,
Adolescents,
The Last Poets,
The Smoke,
Siglo XX,
The Mojo Men,
Q65,
ABBA,
Excepter,
Bauhaus,
Goldenarms,
The Seeds,
Frankie Knuckles,
Sun Ra,
John Cale,
The Moody Blues,
Eddi Front,
Sight & Sound,
Swans,
Jandek,
Blake Baxter,
Mr. Review,
Ituana, Ituana, Ituana, Ituana.
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.