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 Mauritania and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 The Electric Prunes to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Skriet. All the underground hits.
All Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Thompson Twins 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 a harpsichord and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sarah Menescal,
Fugazi,
Thompson Twins,
Schoolly D,
The Kinks,
The Electric Prunes,
Silicon Teens,
Johnny Osbourne,
Pylon,
The Moody Blues,
Barrington Levy,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Cal Tjader,
Can,
Albert Ayler,
James White and The Blacks,
Toni Rubio,
Hashim,
Black Bananas,
Terrestrial Tones,
Black Flag,
The Music Machine,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Lindisfarne,
Sun Ra,
Japan,
T.S.O.L.,
Curtis Mayfield,
Scratch Acid,
Black Sheep,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
the Soft Cell,
The Fall,
The Associates,
Kayak,
Pole,
Bad Manners,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Oneida,
Deadbeat,
MDC,
Skaos,
Peter & Gordon,
Yaz,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Patti Smith,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Television Personalities,
Joe Finger,
June Days,
Scott Walker,
Shoche,
Pierre Henry,
Pet Shop Boys,
Marmalade,
Jawbox,
The J.B.'s,
T. Rex,
Rapeman,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Ken Boothe,
John Lydon, John Lydon, John Lydon, John Lydon.
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.