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 Mongolia and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 linndrum 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 EPMD to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Pussy Galore. All the underground hits.
All The Pop Group tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang on a Can All-Stars 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 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Clarke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Scratch Acid,
Franke,
X-101,
the Slits,
8 Eyed Spy,
Rakim,
Godley & Creme,
Wally Richardson,
Easy Going,
the Fania All-Stars,
Sandy B,
Icehouse,
Schoolly D,
Tomorrow,
Aswad,
H. Thieme,
Crooked Eye,
Arab on Radar,
Howard Jones,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Move,
The Grass Roots,
Kool Moe Dee,
Amon Düül II,
Minor Threat,
Man Eating Sloth,
Porter Ricks,
Buzzcocks,
Mo-Dettes,
John Holt,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Durutti Column,
Al Stewart,
ABC,
Gastr Del Sol,
Eurythmics,
The Angels of Light,
Todd Terry,
Masters at Work,
Cal Tjader,
The Buckinghams,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Pulsallama,
Lakeside,
Qualms,
Black Flag,
Altered Images,
Malaria!,
Agitation Free,
Animal Collective,
Oneida,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
CMW,
The Cure,
The Smoke,
Ken Boothe,
The Slackers,
The Trojans,
Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan.
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.