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 Paraguay and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 Curtis Mayfield to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Suburban Knight. All the underground hits.
All Man Eating Sloth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sällskapet record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 an arpeggiator and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Con Funk Shun record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Johnny Osbourne,
Joyce Sims,
The Modern Lovers,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Fugazi,
Young Marble Giants,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Gang of Four,
Scion,
Sight & Sound,
The Fortunes,
Bill Near,
the Association,
Aaron Thompson,
David Bowie,
Graham Central Station,
Hoover,
Aloha Tigers,
The Dave Clark Five,
Technova,
Patti Smith,
Gang Starr,
Brick,
Pantytec,
Gil Scott Heron,
10cc,
Swans,
Peter & Gordon,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Cowsills,
Kool Moe Dee,
In Retrospect,
The Misunderstood,
Easy Going,
Skriet,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Cramps,
Yazoo,
Rekid,
The Wake,
The Doobie Brothers,
Neil Young,
Frankie Knuckles,
Jacques Brel,
Goldenarms,
Henry Cow,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Prince Buster,
Thompson Twins,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Al Stewart,
Theoretical Girls,
The Neon Judgement,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Tim Buckley,
Warren Ellis,
Don Cherry,
Marcia Griffiths,
Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine.
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.