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 Sierra Leone and from Beijing.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Arab on Radar to the techno 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 Tom Boy. All the underground hits.
All Lou Reed & Metallica tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pantaleimon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warren Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe 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?
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Dave Clark Five,
Zapp,
Absolute Body Control,
Cheater Slicks,
Mandrill,
48th St. Collective,
The Real Kids,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Fad Gadget,
Little Man,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Stockholm Monsters,
Jawbox,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Guru Guru,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Marvin Gaye,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Alarm Clocks,
Underground Resistance,
Scan 7,
Barclay James Harvest,
Slave,
Drive Like Jehu,
Jacob Miller,
Spoonie Gee,
Wally Richardson,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Eli Mardock,
Lyres,
Average White Band,
Roger Hodgson,
Monolake,
Jesper Dahlback,
Talk Talk,
Mr. Review,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Skriet,
The Tremeloes,
Delta 5,
Ludus,
Minnie Riperton,
Joy Division,
Amon Düül II,
The Fuzztones,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Monks,
Bill Near,
Derrick May,
Barry Ungar,
Los Fastidios,
Pole,
The Gap Band,
Tomorrow,
Unrelated Segments,
Sandy B,
Bauhaus,
Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn.
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.