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 Syria and from Halifax.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Index to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Letta Mbulu. All the underground hits.
All Gerry Rafferty tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James Chance & The Contortions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 synthesizer and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Techniques record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Qualms,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Toni Rubio,
Depeche Mode,
Camouflage,
Darondo,
The Seeds,
Pussy Galore,
Kurtis Blow,
Radio Birdman,
The Golliwogs,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Zeros,
A Flock of Seagulls,
H. Thieme,
Khruangbin,
Black Bananas,
Harmonia,
The Mojo Men,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Leaves,
Accadde A,
Erasure,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Television,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Magma,
the Swans,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Robert Wyatt,
Gil Scott Heron,
the Germs,
Pole,
Von Mondo,
Jandek,
The Monochrome Set,
Scan 7,
The Velvet Underground,
Robert Hood,
Lakeside,
New Age Steppers,
The Barracudas,
JFA,
Brass Construction,
KRS-One,
The Stooges,
Intrusion,
Trumans Water,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Swans,
Amon Düül II,
Prince Buster,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tropical Tobacco,
Johnny Osbourne,
Donald Byrd,
The Fuzztones,
Eden Ahbez,
Derrick Morgan,
The Gories,
Isaac Hayes,
the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
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.