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 Fiji and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 This Heat 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 Symarip. All the underground hits.
All The Residents tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suburban Knight 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echo & the Bunnymen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The New Christs,
Albert Ayler,
Soul II Soul,
Radiohead,
Darondo,
The Blues Magoos,
Arab on Radar,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Tres Demented,
Man Parrish,
Marmalade,
Monolake,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Underground Resistance,
Rufus Thomas,
These Immortal Souls,
UT,
Boredoms,
Aaron Thompson,
The Smiths,
Freddie Wadling,
Robert Hood,
The Offenders,
Pierre Henry,
Marine Girls,
The Evens,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Skriet,
Bauhaus,
Zapp,
KRS-One,
Susan Cadogan,
Cybotron,
Country Teasers,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
10cc,
Oneida,
Laurel Aitken,
Matthew Halsall,
Television Personalities,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Big Daddy Kane,
Subhumans,
Drive Like Jehu,
Joe Smooth,
Television,
The Victims,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Modern Lovers,
The Mummies,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Doors,
Idris Muhammad,
Scratch Acid,
Drexciya,
Joe Finger,
Chris Corsano,
Arcadia,
Panda Bear,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian.
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.