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 Gambia and from Mumbai.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Tubeway Army to the rock 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 Parry Music. All the underground hits.
All Nas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Youth Brigade record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 a rhodes and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sam Rivers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tropical Tobacco,
Neil Young,
D'Angelo,
Josef K,
Al Stewart,
Fat Boys,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Das Ding,
The Count Five,
Gang Gang Dance,
Hashim,
Q65,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Kinks,
FM Einheit,
Crispy Ambulance,
Heaven 17,
B.T. Express,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Robert Hood,
The Neon Judgement,
Ice-T,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
ABC,
Marvin Gaye,
Hoover,
Joey Negro,
Kayak,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Associates,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Rosa Yemen,
Aloha Tigers,
cv313,
Gregory Isaacs,
Jawbox,
Masters at Work,
Swell Maps,
Depeche Mode,
Mars,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Last Poets,
Lindisfarne,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Public Image Ltd.,
Matthew Bourne,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Black Bananas,
Tres Demented,
Vladislav Delay,
The Fortunes,
Urselle,
Supertramp,
Patti Smith,
Marc Almond,
Camouflage,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.