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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 Scion to the rap 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 Fugs. All the underground hits.
All James White and The Blacks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Isaac Hayes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 spring reverb and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Association,
Toni Rubio,
Marshall Jefferson,
Sun City Girls,
MC5,
Howard Jones,
Flipper,
Joe Smooth,
KRS-One,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Ultravox,
The Birthday Party,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Yellowson,
The Slits,
Crash Course in Science,
Sällskapet,
Japan,
Fela Kuti,
Jimmy McGriff,
Organ,
Bill Near,
The Neon Judgement,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
ABBA,
Gichy Dan,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Knickerbockers,
Crime,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Buzzcocks,
The Kinks,
Dead Boys,
Schoolly D,
Chris & Cosey,
Eve St. Jones,
Piero Umiliani,
Model 500,
Negative Approach,
Byron Stingily,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Outsiders,
The Names,
Soul II Soul,
Swell Maps,
Sarah Menescal,
Mission of Burma,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Hoover,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Eric B and Rakim,
Circle Jerks,
The Stooges,
The Electric Prunes,
Moby Grape,
Reagan Youth,
Agent Orange,
Pere Ubu,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lower 48,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Dirtbombs, The Dirtbombs, The Dirtbombs, The Dirtbombs.
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.