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 East Timor and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Avey Tare to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 The Young Rascals. All the underground hits.
All The Electric Prunes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Metal Thangz record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Max Romeo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Joyce Sims,
A Certain Ratio,
Gastr Del Sol,
Hasil Adkins,
Sun City Girls,
Patti Smith,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Human League,
Mo-Dettes,
Pharoah Sanders,
Wally Richardson,
Popol Vuh,
Ultravox,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Busters,
The Invisible,
Neil Young,
Bronski Beat,
Television,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Skarface,
Leonard Cohen,
Arcadia,
Swans,
Stetsasonic,
Sun Ra,
Interpol,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Doobie Brothers,
Terry Callier,
The Five Americans,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
the Normal,
Godley & Creme,
Yaz,
U.S. Maple,
The Detroit Cobras,
Sight & Sound,
Gang Green,
Anthony Braxton,
Au Pairs,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Marcia Griffiths,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Nick Fraelich,
Jerry's Kids,
The Index,
Rosa Yemen,
Cymande,
the Fania All-Stars,
Andrew Hill,
DNA,
Kerri Chandler,
The Smiths,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Techniques, The Techniques, The Techniques, The Techniques.
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.