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 Belize and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 arpeggiator 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 The Monochrome Set to the crunk 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 The Five Americans. All the underground hits.
All Hardrive tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Supertramp record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
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 Radio Birdman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Motorama,
The Dave Clark Five,
Glenn Branca,
Dennis Brown,
Shuggie Otis,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Sonic Youth,
John Holt,
Toni Rubio,
Television,
The American Breed,
Skaos,
Fad Gadget,
Minnie Riperton,
Jimmy McGriff,
Eurythmics,
the Normal,
The Knickerbockers,
the Slits,
Ultravox,
Radio Birdman,
Bang On A Can,
Wings,
Steve Hackett,
Tommy Roe,
Wire,
Heaven 17,
Tim Buckley,
Youth Brigade,
Suburban Knight,
Sister Nancy,
Inner City,
Cal Tjader,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
John Foxx,
Organ,
Joey Negro,
The Dead C,
Sixth Finger,
Blossom Toes,
Gang Gang Dance,
Nas,
Skarface,
Matthew Bourne,
Crooked Eye,
Charles Mingus,
Banda Bassotti,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Rites of Spring,
Index,
The Blackbyrds,
Jacques Brel,
The J.B.'s,
Liliput,
Groovy Waters,
Godley & Creme,
Terry Callier,
8 Eyed Spy,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Siglo XX,
Marine Girls,
Faraquet,
T.S.O.L.,
Little Man, Little Man, Little Man, Little Man.
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.