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 Samoa and from Beijing.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Hong Kong.
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 sitar 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 Aural Exciters to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Pagans. All the underground hits.
All the Fania All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Peter & Gordon 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sparks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ash Ra Tempel,
Jandek,
Mars,
Brothers Johnson,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Hashim,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Tres Demented,
Japan,
The Human League,
R.M.O.,
Camouflage,
Pulsallama,
Wasted Youth,
Kenny Larkin,
Ice-T,
Metal Thangz,
Television Personalities,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Max Romeo,
Sex Pistols,
Sonny Sharrock,
Warsaw,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Smoke,
The Last Poets,
David Bowie,
Wally Richardson,
The Slits,
James White and The Blacks,
Sam Rivers,
The Gladiators,
Dorothy Ashby,
Chrome,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Derrick Morgan,
U.S. Maple,
Josef K,
Youth Brigade,
Boz Scaggs,
Goldenarms,
Gerry Rafferty,
Thompson Twins,
Sugar Minott,
Depeche Mode,
Dark Day,
Moebius,
The Alarm Clocks,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Sight & Sound,
Nils Olav,
Hoover,
Aaron Thompson,
The Invisible,
The Toasters,
Ronnie Foster,
The Move,
Johnny Clarke,
The Fire Engines,
Faust,
Altered Images,
Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily.
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.