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 Bhutan and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Spokane.
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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Charles Mingus to the grunge 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 Shoche. All the underground hits.
All Bronski Beat tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Doors record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cure record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Dave Clark Five,
The New Christs,
Cecil Taylor,
Pharoah Sanders,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Evens,
Bill Wells,
Buzzcocks,
Whodini,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Sixth Finger,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Accadde A,
Drexciya,
the Normal,
Bobby Sherman,
Deepchord,
Faust,
Essential Logic,
Mr. Review,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Procol Harum,
FM Einheit,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Reagan Youth,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Matthew Bourne,
Robert Görl,
Lee Hazlewood,
This Heat,
Visage,
The Sound,
Wire,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Patti Smith,
Ralphi Rosario,
Bronski Beat,
Lakeside,
The Mummies,
Minny Pops,
Lightning Bolt,
Kerrie Biddell,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Section 25,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
OOIOO,
Jesper Dahlback,
the Slits,
Iggy Pop,
Public Image Ltd.,
New Age Steppers,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Wally Richardson,
Joe Finger,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
DNA,
Albert Ayler,
Nick Fraelich,
Moebius, Moebius, Moebius, Moebius.
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.