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 Senegal and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Pantaleimon to the dance kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Robert Wyatt. All the underground hits.
All Sonic Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Busters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Livin' Joy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ten City,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Max Romeo,
Grandmaster Flash,
Cheater Slicks,
Black Bananas,
Young Marble Giants,
In Retrospect,
Underground Resistance,
Stereo Dub,
Severed Heads,
Radiopuhelimet,
This Heat,
Maleditus Sound,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Slits,
Cecil Taylor,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Von Mondo,
Excepter,
Tropical Tobacco,
Ronnie Foster,
Crime,
Public Image Ltd.,
Porter Ricks,
Mary Jane Girls,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Sonics,
Flipper,
Brothers Johnson,
The Cosmic Jokers,
cv313,
The Gap Band,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Tomorrow,
The Young Rascals,
La Düsseldorf,
Prince Buster,
Amazonics,
Marc Almond,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Royal Trux,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Evens,
Camouflage,
Peter & Gordon,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ohio Players,
Fatback Band,
The Wake,
Judy Mowatt,
Lower 48,
The Pretty Things,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Jacob Miller,
DJ Style,
ABBA,
The Dirtbombs,
The Gories,
Nirvana,
The Red Krayola,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.