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 Laos and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 The Pretty Things to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell. All the underground hits.
All Be Bop Deluxe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Babytalk 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Todd Rundgren record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Velvet Underground,
The Saints,
Eli Mardock,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Fuzztones,
Idris Muhammad,
Absolute Body Control,
Prince Buster,
Intrusion,
Avey Tare,
the Swans,
The Birthday Party,
The J.B.'s,
In Retrospect,
Man Eating Sloth,
Nation of Ulysses,
Connie Case,
Surgeon,
These Immortal Souls,
Parry Music,
The Toasters,
R.M.O.,
AZ,
the Human League,
Aaron Thompson,
Au Pairs,
Suicide,
Arthur Verocai,
Camberwell Now,
The Electric Prunes,
U.S. Maple,
Agitation Free,
Lightning Bolt,
Wire,
MC5,
Jeff Lynne,
Ice-T,
Crooked Eye,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Joyce Sims,
Sound Behaviour,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Stooges,
Erykah Badu,
The Wake,
The United States of America,
Ohio Players,
DJ Style,
Neil Young,
Scrapy,
Pole,
The Pretty Things,
Slick Rick,
Siglo XX,
Television Personalities,
Index,
Amazonics,
The Skatalites,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers.
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.