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 Latvia 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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Salvador.
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 Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
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 Janne Schatter to the rock 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 Alison Limerick. All the underground hits.
All Aural Exciters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Toasters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Angels of Light record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aural Exciters,
Pylon,
Yusef Lateef,
The Move,
Marmalade,
Organ,
The Gories,
Sexual Harrassment,
the Slits,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Jacques Brel,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Todd Rundgren,
Glenn Branca,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Rapeman,
Franke,
Scrapy,
Altered Images,
Surgeon,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Wasted Youth,
Intrusion,
Khruangbin,
Marvin Gaye,
the Sonics,
Subhumans,
The Count Five,
Nirvana,
Cameo,
the Human League,
The Dave Clark Five,
Hashim,
The Offenders,
Black Flag,
The Zeros,
Danielle Patucci,
Lee Hazlewood,
Robert Hood,
Bluetip,
FM Einheit,
the Association,
The Velvet Underground,
The Toasters,
Donny Hathaway,
Ultravox,
The Birthday Party,
Man Parrish,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Gun Club,
Pagans,
Guru Guru,
Gang Starr,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Fuzztones,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Mark Hollis,
Bad Manners,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers.
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.