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 St Lucia and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Bootsy Collins to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Average White Band. All the underground hits.
All Junior Murvin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ken Boothe record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 808 and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fela Kuti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ten City,
June Days,
Bill Near,
Lalann,
Isaac Hayes,
the Slits,
Warsaw,
Suicide,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Anthony Braxton,
Blake Baxter,
Yazoo,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Marvin Gaye,
Yusef Lateef,
Byron Stingily,
Reuben Wilson,
Maleditus Sound,
CMW,
JFA,
Jeru the Damaja,
Deepchord,
Animal Collective,
The Cowsills,
Eli Mardock,
Fad Gadget,
Neu!,
Quadrant,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Barracudas,
The Monochrome Set,
The Last Poets,
The Slits,
Popol Vuh,
Lee Hazlewood,
Adolescents,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Toasters,
Can,
Moss Icon,
Boredoms,
Liliput,
10cc,
Black Flag,
Cameo,
The Knickerbockers,
Drexciya,
Tommy Roe,
Massinfluence,
Drive Like Jehu,
48th St. Collective,
D'Angelo,
the Normal,
Iggy Pop,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Average White Band,
Roy Ayers,
Gastr Del Sol,
Surgeon,
The Gun Club,
Monks,
The Durutti Column,
Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash.
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.