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 Benin and from Shanghai.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the sitar 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 Mr. Review to the punk 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 Soft Cell. All the underground hits.
All Vladislav Delay tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang On A Can 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bob Dylan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Basic Channel,
Reagan Youth,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Byron Stingily,
the Germs,
Henry Cow,
Joyce Sims,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Jandek,
The Martian,
Absolute Body Control,
Duran Duran,
Girls At Our Best!,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Toasters,
The Gap Band,
Archie Shepp,
The Neon Judgement,
The New Christs,
Clear Light,
Surgeon,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Rapeman,
Roxette,
The American Breed,
Sight & Sound,
La Düsseldorf,
One Last Wish,
Fad Gadget,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Kenny Larkin,
Lalann,
Don Cherry,
Trumans Water,
Liliput,
Slick Rick,
This Heat,
Pulsallama,
R.M.O.,
Amazonics,
Animal Collective,
Guru Guru,
Warsaw,
Tropical Tobacco,
Dorothy Ashby,
The J.B.'s,
The Fuzztones,
Throbbing Gristle,
Janne Schatter,
Zapp,
The Seeds,
The Skatalites,
James White and The Blacks,
Parry Music,
These Immortal Souls,
The Cure,
Scratch Acid,
Deadbeat,
Blake Baxter,
Danielle Patucci,
Jeff Lynne,
Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen.
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.