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 Jamaica and from Glasgow.
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 Bremen and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan 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 Robert Görl. All the underground hits.
All Toni Rubio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Erykah Badu record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 an oboe and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Vladislav Delay record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Real Kids,
Swans,
Crime,
Grauzone,
Marvin Gaye,
In Retrospect,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Idris Muhammad,
Ronnie Foster,
Tim Buckley,
The Knickerbockers,
the Human League,
Avey Tare,
Scratch Acid,
Jawbox,
L. Decosne,
Cecil Taylor,
One Last Wish,
The Gun Club,
Stockholm Monsters,
Bizarre Inc.,
Electric Prunes,
KRS-One,
Gichy Dan,
Pet Shop Boys,
Black Bananas,
The Human League,
Q and Not U,
Eric Dolphy,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Average White Band,
Model 500,
Gregory Isaacs,
Sonny Sharrock,
Joy Division,
Glambeats Corp.,
Rod Modell,
Rites of Spring,
Inner City,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Franke,
The Gladiators,
R.M.O.,
Shoche,
Yellowson,
Shuggie Otis,
Fugazi,
Bootsy Collins,
Godley & Creme,
Nils Olav,
Boz Scaggs,
Bush Tetras,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Beau Brummels,
The Stooges,
Flash Fearless,
Television,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell.
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.