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 Mexico and from Philadelphia.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
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 Wire to the jazz kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Desert Stars. All the underground hits.
All Pet Shop Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Whodini record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Dennis Brown,
Roger Hodgson,
LL Cool J,
Scion,
The Offenders,
Subhumans,
X-Ray Spex,
Unrelated Segments,
The Associates,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Zapp,
Tommy Roe,
Sandy B,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Quadrant,
Ice-T,
Roy Ayers,
Slick Rick,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Radiohead,
Frankie Knuckles,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Mad Mike,
The Busters,
the Germs,
Gerry Rafferty,
Swell Maps,
Marine Girls,
Fad Gadget,
The Grass Roots,
Porter Ricks,
Reagan Youth,
Colin Newman,
Parry Music,
Peter & Gordon,
Sparks,
Vainqueur,
Matthew Halsall,
Alice Coltrane,
the Slits,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Gang Gang Dance,
Dawn Penn,
The Trojans,
Ossler,
Agent Orange,
Ohio Players,
Tears for Fears,
Stereo Dub,
Oblivians,
Glambeats Corp.,
FM Einheit,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Blackbyrds,
Susan Cadogan,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Kinks,
Don Cherry,
Hoover,
Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott.
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.