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 Malaysia and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Wings to the grunge 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 Bill Near. All the underground hits.
All The Martian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lyres 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Soft Cell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ituana,
The Move,
Soft Cell,
Frankie Knuckles,
The American Breed,
K-Klass,
Visage,
CMW,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Index,
Motorama,
Laurel Aitken,
Throbbing Gristle,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Intrusion,
Kaleidoscope,
Fluxion,
Minny Pops,
Scratch Acid,
Bob Dylan,
Erykah Badu,
Eve St. Jones,
The Five Americans,
Moby Grape,
Metal Thangz,
The Cramps,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Swell Maps,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Boz Scaggs,
Pere Ubu,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Kevin Saunderson,
Excepter,
Derrick Morgan,
Cluster,
The Trojans,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Moody Blues,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
the Slits,
Rufus Thomas,
Lindisfarne,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Dawn Penn,
Derrick May,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Bobby Byrd,
The Shadows of Knight,
David Axelrod,
James White and The Blacks,
H. Thieme,
Monolake,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Connie Case,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Neu!,
Moebius,
Fat Boys,
The Associates,
Subhumans,
Vainqueur,
Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys.
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.