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 Uzbekistan and from Accra.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Louis and Bebe Barron to the disco 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 Johnny Osbourne. All the underground hits.
All Brothers Johnson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Velvet Underground record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Hasil Adkins,
Sam Rivers,
Leonard Cohen,
Letta Mbulu,
Q and Not U,
Black Moon,
Amazonics,
John Holt,
Icehouse,
Stiv Bators,
Whodini,
Hashim,
The Techniques,
Porter Ricks,
Brick,
Mr. Review,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
New Age Steppers,
Joy Division,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Magma,
Arab on Radar,
Scrapy,
Robert Hood,
Donald Byrd,
Marvin Gaye,
The Gap Band,
Ice-T,
the Germs,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Vladislav Delay,
Mo-Dettes,
The Mummies,
Stockholm Monsters,
Eurythmics,
Sonic Youth,
The Monks,
Ituana,
Mantronix,
Jandek,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Alarm Clocks,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Gerry Rafferty,
Vainqueur,
Khruangbin,
Todd Rundgren,
Cluster,
Warsaw,
Dawn Penn,
Underground Resistance,
Barry Ungar,
Slave,
Joyce Sims,
Idris Muhammad,
Guru Guru,
Robert Görl,
X-101,
Scion,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Mandrill, Mandrill, Mandrill, Mandrill.
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.