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 Marshall Islands and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 spring reverb 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 The Index to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Jandek. All the underground hits.
All June Days tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Flock of Seagulls record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fear record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fugazi,
Lakeside,
Pharoah Sanders,
June Days,
Banda Bassotti,
Talk Talk,
The Sound,
Lyres,
Drexciya,
Sarah Menescal,
Index,
Soft Machine,
The Offenders,
Delta 5,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
ABC,
Rotary Connection,
the Swans,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Negative Approach,
China Crisis,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Technova,
Sight & Sound,
T. Rex,
Iggy Pop,
Amon Düül,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Donald Byrd,
Tears for Fears,
Godley & Creme,
Lou Christie,
Peter and Kerry,
Funkadelic,
Eric B and Rakim,
Jimmy McGriff,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Alphaville,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Ultra Naté,
Von Mondo,
Babytalk,
The Shadows of Knight,
Max Romeo,
Chris Corsano,
This Heat,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Big Daddy Kane,
Black Moon,
Patti Smith,
The Dirtbombs,
The Happenings,
La Düsseldorf,
the Sonics,
Basic Channel,
The Monks,
Tropical Tobacco,
Cecil Taylor,
Boz Scaggs,
Bob Dylan,
Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps.
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.