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 Slovakia and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Glasgow.
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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Arthur Verocai to the disco 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 La Düsseldorf. All the underground hits.
All Lalo Schifrin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eric Copeland record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band 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?
Moss Icon,
Johnny Osbourne,
Loose Ends,
Bush Tetras,
Echospace,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Tremeloes,
Trumans Water,
Sam Rivers,
Slick Rick,
Bauhaus,
Essential Logic,
Arcadia,
Q and Not U,
Erasure,
K-Klass,
Barbara Tucker,
Jandek,
Section 25,
The Shadows of Knight,
Masters at Work,
Skriet,
New Age Steppers,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Stereo Dub,
Rapeman,
Con Funk Shun,
The Buckinghams,
The Walker Brothers,
Rotary Connection,
The Mummies,
Severed Heads,
Silicon Teens,
Funkadelic,
Alton Ellis,
Television Personalities,
Al Stewart,
Adolescents,
Mad Mike,
Rosa Yemen,
The Saints,
Q65,
Michelle Simonal,
Lightning Bolt,
Boogie Down Productions,
Minutemen,
Lucky Dragons,
The Durutti Column,
Gang Gang Dance,
Derrick Morgan,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Harry Pussy,
Morten Harket,
Nik Kershaw,
Average White Band,
Black Sheep,
In Retrospect,
Sixth Finger,
Electric Prunes,
Junior Murvin,
Dark Day, Dark Day, Dark Day, Dark Day.
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.