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 South Sudan and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Rufus Thomas to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 X-Ray Spex. All the underground hits.
All Little Man tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bauhaus 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yazoo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pet Shop Boys,
Harry Pussy,
Visage,
Hasil Adkins,
Lower 48,
One Last Wish,
The Fugs,
Lou Reed,
World's Most,
the Association,
Reagan Youth,
Sun Ra,
The Electric Prunes,
Gang of Four,
Y Pants,
Pulsallama,
Vladislav Delay,
Desert Stars,
Soul Sonic Force,
Flipper,
The United States of America,
Wire,
Pere Ubu,
Camberwell Now,
The Fortunes,
New Age Steppers,
Massinfluence,
Black Bananas,
Glenn Branca,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Music Machine,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Walker Brothers,
The Buckinghams,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Remains,
The Black Dice,
Aural Exciters,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Babytalk,
Sun City Girls,
Country Teasers,
Aloha Tigers,
Peter & Gordon,
Susan Cadogan,
Basic Channel,
The Barracudas,
Joensuu 1685,
Sexual Harrassment,
Carl Craig,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Red Krayola,
Deepchord,
Alphaville,
Thee Headcoats,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Ken Boothe,
Amon Düül,
Tommy Roe,
Gastr Del Sol,
Barclay James Harvest,
Shuggie Otis,
Mandrill, Mandrill, Mandrill, Mandrill.
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.