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 Sudan and from Beijing.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Wasted Youth to the disco 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 Lou Reed & John Cale. All the underground hits.
All Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bill Near record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 an arpeggiator and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
It's A Beautiful Day,
Sex Pistols,
The Electric Prunes,
The Smoke,
Black Bananas,
The Blackbyrds,
Country Joe & The Fish,
New York Dolls,
Groovy Waters,
Man Parrish,
cv313,
Deepchord,
Magazine,
The Kinks,
Popol Vuh,
Sun City Girls,
Tears for Fears,
World's Most,
The Mojo Men,
The Real Kids,
Minnie Riperton,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Maurizio,
Rotary Connection,
Susan Cadogan,
Y Pants,
Soulsonic Force,
Qualms,
Lyres,
Alton Ellis,
Traffic Nightmare,
Ornette Coleman,
Eddi Front,
Peter and Kerry,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Barrington Levy,
Crime,
The Fire Engines,
Lalo Schifrin,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
L. Decosne,
The United States of America,
Ossler,
Eli Mardock,
One Last Wish,
The Red Krayola,
Lower 48,
Bush Tetras,
Desert Stars,
Yazoo,
Lungfish,
Faust,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Vogues,
Arcadia,
The Wake,
Warsaw,
Franke,
The Saints,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Donny Hathaway,
Motorama,
David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie.
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.