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 Belarus and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 clarinet 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 Gong to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Neil Young & Crazy Horse. All the underground hits.
All Y Pants tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Monolake 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a China Crisis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Albert Ayler,
Grey Daturas,
The Stooges,
Lower 48,
Maurizio,
Brothers Johnson,
Excepter,
Circle Jerks,
David Axelrod,
The Buckinghams,
Mad Mike,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Young Rascals,
Joensuu 1685,
Andrew Hill,
Barbara Tucker,
New Order,
Jandek,
The Beau Brummels,
The Slackers,
The Cosmic Jokers,
the Bar-Kays,
The Wake,
Colin Newman,
Kool Moe Dee,
Arthur Verocai,
Donald Byrd,
Kayak,
the Normal,
Slick Rick,
Absolute Body Control,
Deadbeat,
the Soft Cell,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Mission of Burma,
Pharoah Sanders,
Masters at Work,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Black Sheep,
The Human League,
The Saints,
Babytalk,
These Immortal Souls,
Saccharine Trust,
The Names,
Cal Tjader,
Icehouse,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Aural Exciters,
U.S. Maple,
Ultravox,
Skriet,
The Moleskins,
The Fugs,
The Flesh Eaters,
AZ,
Motorama,
Todd Rundgren,
Amazonics,
Sugar Minott,
The Skatalites,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Monks, Monks, Monks, Monks.
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.