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 Nigeria and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 China Crisis to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Pharoah Sanders. All the underground hits.
All Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pulsallama record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 theremin and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Skatalites record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Johnny Clarke,
The Busters,
Gang Green,
The Martian,
Idris Muhammad,
Tears for Fears,
Warsaw,
Yazoo,
The Grass Roots,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Cecil Taylor,
Ituana,
June Days,
Fluxion,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
L. Decosne,
R.M.O.,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Sight & Sound,
Nick Fraelich,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Raincoats,
Sun Ra,
48th St. Collective,
The Slackers,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Star Department,
Y Pants,
Whodini,
The Doobie Brothers,
Skarface,
Monks,
B.T. Express,
F. McDonald,
The Red Krayola,
Aloha Tigers,
Chris Corsano,
Oneida,
H. Thieme,
The Music Machine,
Kaleidoscope,
the Human League,
Unwound,
The Sonics,
X-Ray Spex,
Mantronix,
Outsiders,
The Moleskins,
Stockholm Monsters,
Bluetip,
Nation of Ulysses,
Darondo,
Arcadia,
The Velvet Underground,
Essential Logic,
Sam Rivers,
The Index,
The Knickerbockers,
Dead Boys,
Boz Scaggs,
John Cale, John Cale, John Cale, John Cale.
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.