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 Burundi and from New York.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 Holger Czukay 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 Derrick Morgan to the grunge kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Kenny Larkin. All the underground hits.
All Albert Ayler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dave Gahan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 chamberlin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marcia Griffiths record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
China Crisis,
Erasure,
Radiohead,
Joe Smooth,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Young Marble Giants,
Soul Sonic Force,
Outsiders,
Jeff Mills,
Gang Green,
The Count Five,
Bootsy Collins,
The Last Poets,
Cal Tjader,
Radio Birdman,
the Slits,
Pussy Galore,
Saccharine Trust,
The Tremeloes,
the Germs,
Arab on Radar,
Matthew Halsall,
Michelle Simonal,
The Stooges,
The Electric Prunes,
Idris Muhammad,
Trumans Water,
Ludus,
Camberwell Now,
Stockholm Monsters,
Soft Cell,
The Monochrome Set,
The Birthday Party,
Pagans,
Fat Boys,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Pet Shop Boys,
Public Enemy,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
These Immortal Souls,
The Dirtbombs,
Wally Richardson,
Alton Ellis,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Jeff Lynne,
Tommy Roe,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Dual Sessions,
Throbbing Gristle,
Oneida,
MC5,
Porter Ricks,
Magazine,
The Detroit Cobras,
Henry Cow,
Hoover,
Albert Ayler,
The Blues Magoos,
Fear,
Underground Resistance,
Eurythmics,
Rufus Thomas,
Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon.
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.