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 Tunisia and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Oneida. All the underground hits.
All Jawbox tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Notorious Big And Bone Thugs 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Stooges,
Aaron Thompson,
La Düsseldorf,
Toni Rubio,
Pharoah Sanders,
Wings,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Names,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
F. McDonald,
One Last Wish,
Godley & Creme,
Cheater Slicks,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
H. Thieme,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Whodini,
Young Marble Giants,
Wasted Youth,
The Dirtbombs,
Swell Maps,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Radiopuhelimet,
Echospace,
Arcadia,
Joe Smooth,
Cybotron,
Arthur Verocai,
Gerry Rafferty,
Gregory Isaacs,
Groovy Waters,
the Fania All-Stars,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Throbbing Gristle,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Eli Mardock,
The Cure,
The Slits,
Gang Gang Dance,
Frankie Knuckles,
Q and Not U,
Davy DMX,
Iggy Pop,
Matthew Halsall,
Scrapy,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Monks,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Nation of Ulysses,
Jawbox,
Aloha Tigers,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Little Man,
Faust,
Cal Tjader,
Japan,
MC5,
the Swans,
The Fortunes,
The Red Krayola,
Lyres,
Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley.
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.