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 Germany and from Hong Kong.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Darondo to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Nik Kershaw. All the underground hits.
All The Sisters of Mercy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flamin' Groovies record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 an organ and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Boogie Down Productions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bootsy Collins,
Faust,
Japan,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Saints,
Gang of Four,
Johnny Osbourne,
Nick Fraelich,
Underground Resistance,
The Pop Group,
Siglo XX,
The Velvet Underground,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Spoonie Gee,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Pylon,
Youth Brigade,
Marvin Gaye,
Crispian St. Peters,
Urselle,
The Techniques,
Tom Boy,
Quando Quango,
Gil Scott Heron,
Sound Behaviour,
Joy Division,
The United States of America,
John Cale,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Ponytail,
Aswad,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Bizarre Inc.,
DNA,
Stockholm Monsters,
Swans,
Radio Birdman,
Neil Young,
Pagans,
Darondo,
The Flesh Eaters,
David Bowie,
Drexciya,
Suicide,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Walker Brothers,
The Dead C,
Donald Byrd,
JFA,
Sun City Girls,
Negative Approach,
The Stooges,
Niagra,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Hoover,
Slick Rick,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Zeros,
Eurythmics,
Piero Umiliani,
The Slits, The Slits, The Slits, The Slits.
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.