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 Colombia and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax 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 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 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 Flipper to the funk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 It's A Beautiful Day. All the underground hits.
All Yusef Lateef tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Normal record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Terrestrial Tones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pagans,
The Wake,
Sam Rivers,
the Germs,
Johnny Clarke,
Eli Mardock,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Quando Quango,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Public Image Ltd.,
the Swans,
Peter and Kerry,
Scrapy,
Throbbing Gristle,
Terrestrial Tones,
Sällskapet,
The Beau Brummels,
Radiopuhelimet,
Lightning Bolt,
Qualms,
New Order,
Urselle,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Pet Shop Boys,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Average White Band,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Talk Talk,
AZ,
Jandek,
Lakeside,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Nils Olav,
Von Mondo,
ABBA,
Radio Birdman,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Rufus Thomas,
Reagan Youth,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Pulsallama,
Drive Like Jehu,
L. Decosne,
Don Cherry,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Funkadelic,
Black Bananas,
Absolute Body Control,
Maurizio,
Crispian St. Peters,
Little Man,
Circle Jerks,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Marcia Griffiths,
Boredoms,
David Axelrod,
Slick Rick,
Wolf Eyes,
Marmalade,
Crash Course in Science,
Fad Gadget,
Accadde A,
Barclay James Harvest,
Radiohead,
The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood, The Misunderstood.
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.