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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Letta Mbulu to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Jerry Gold Smith. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marvin Gaye record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sonic Youth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Idris Muhammad,
Charles Mingus,
Fad Gadget,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Jacques Brel,
Das Ding,
The Dirtbombs,
The Misunderstood,
The Slits,
F. McDonald,
Pet Shop Boys,
Moby Grape,
The Golliwogs,
Jesper Dahlback,
Mission of Burma,
Gang Gang Dance,
Wings,
Funky Four + One,
Jandek,
World's Most,
Pylon,
Boredoms,
Ralphi Rosario,
Wire,
Minor Threat,
Smog,
Tommy Roe,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Ossler,
Rufus Thomas,
Delta 5,
Severed Heads,
Man Parrish,
T. Rex,
Cybotron,
Newcleus,
Max Romeo,
Television Personalities,
FM Einheit,
The Cure,
Joey Negro,
Popol Vuh,
Rakim,
Godley & Creme,
Radiohead,
The Music Machine,
The Gladiators,
Spoonie Gee,
Minnie Riperton,
Chrome,
The Barracudas,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The New Christs,
Blossom Toes,
Joe Smooth,
Alton Ellis,
Vainqueur,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Saints,
Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler.
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.