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 Comoros and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 Tokyo and Lyon.
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 chamberlin 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 Derrick May to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Scott Walker. All the underground hits.
All Erasure tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gian Franco Pienzio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jesper Dahlback record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mandrill,
Moebius,
Lou Christie,
Unwound,
Joey Negro,
Robert Wyatt,
Alton Ellis,
The Blues Magoos,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Smoke,
Eric Copeland,
The Sisters of Mercy,
the Normal,
Blossom Toes,
Gastr Del Sol,
Basic Channel,
The Velvet Underground,
Los Fastidios,
Moby Grape,
the Swans,
Hot Snakes,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Spoonie Gee,
Unrelated Segments,
Jerry's Kids,
Quadrant,
Iggy Pop,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ken Boothe,
David Axelrod,
The Fugs,
Public Enemy,
Mo-Dettes,
Franke,
Monks,
The Busters,
Laurel Aitken,
Rekid,
Sun City Girls,
Rapeman,
Tears for Fears,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Barry Ungar,
Adolescents,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Cybotron,
Stereo Dub,
Boogie Down Productions,
Bootsy Collins,
Moss Icon,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ultimate Spinach,
Fluxion,
Rhythm & Sound,
Cymande,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Byron Stingily,
Ossler,
Maurizio,
Ludus,
H. Thieme,
The Slits,
Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood.
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.