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 Romania and from Bologna.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Jawbox to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Section 25. All the underground hits.
All The Doobie Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Piero Umiliani record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Masters at Work record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yusef Lateef,
Ludus,
Lakeside,
Neil Young,
Minnie Riperton,
The Shadows of Knight,
Panda Bear,
The Searchers,
The Leaves,
Avey Tare,
Sixth Finger,
The United States of America,
The Smiths,
Scrapy,
Dawn Penn,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Leonard Cohen,
The Index,
Livin' Joy,
The Pretty Things,
Jimmy McGriff,
Roxy Music,
Sugar Minott,
Bootsy Collins,
PIL,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Zeros,
Kurtis Blow,
Surgeon,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Schoolly D,
Steve Hackett,
La Düsseldorf,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Deakin,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Television Personalities,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Loose Ends,
Susan Cadogan,
The Beau Brummels,
Sister Nancy,
The Smoke,
Das Ding,
The Buckinghams,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Invisible,
Thompson Twins,
The Happenings,
Spandau Ballet,
Skriet,
the Slits,
Lower 48,
Morten Harket,
The Wake,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Cluster,
Delon & Dalcan,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Urselle, Urselle, Urselle, Urselle.
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.