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 Vietnam and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 theremin 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 Scott Walker + Sunn O))) to the rock 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 Mary Jane Girls. All the underground hits.
All Red Lorry Yellow Lorry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Japan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Names record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Guru Guru,
Gil Scott Heron,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Von Mondo,
Arab on Radar,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Fluxion,
Wire,
The United States of America,
Hot Snakes,
Masters at Work,
Joey Negro,
Albert Ayler,
Marine Girls,
The Toasters,
Black Pus,
Sarah Menescal,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Sister Nancy,
Duran Duran,
Wally Richardson,
Mad Mike,
Matthew Bourne,
June of 44,
Wasted Youth,
Quadrant,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Walker Brothers,
The J.B.'s,
MDC,
Q and Not U,
Nation of Ulysses,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Tropical Tobacco,
Bluetip,
The Zeros,
Jawbox,
John Cale,
Johnny Clarke,
Bad Manners,
Johnny Osbourne,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Sugar Minott,
Pagans,
Hasil Adkins,
Tears for Fears,
Minutemen,
Whodini,
The Real Kids,
Flipper,
Letta Mbulu,
Joyce Sims,
Stockholm Monsters,
Scrapy,
The Dave Clark Five,
Curtis Mayfield,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Eurythmics,
Lou Christie,
Nik Kershaw,
Electric Prunes,
The Last Poets,
Tres Demented,
Blake Baxter, Blake Baxter, Blake Baxter, Blake Baxter.
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.