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 Burkina and from Tokyo.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 theremin 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 Albert Ayler to the punk 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 Lonnie Liston Smith. All the underground hits.
All The Barracudas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Slits record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a China Crisis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Leonard Cohen,
The Techniques,
Rhythm & Sound,
Ken Boothe,
Isaac Hayes,
Symarip,
Arthur Verocai,
Yusef Lateef,
Y Pants,
The Smoke,
Make Up,
Kool Moe Dee,
Jandek,
The Grass Roots,
Urselle,
Duran Duran,
Goldenarms,
Accadde A,
The Kinks,
Juan Atkins,
Faraquet,
New Order,
Grauzone,
The Slits,
Mantronix,
Tears for Fears,
Rod Modell,
Television Personalities,
Freddie Wadling,
Subhumans,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Lightning Bolt,
Country Teasers,
Shoche,
Inner City,
Ultravox,
Sam Rivers,
The Gun Club,
PIL,
Fat Boys,
Althea and Donna,
Joe Smooth,
Sun City Girls,
Intrusion,
Absolute Body Control,
Ludus,
Archie Shepp,
The Doors,
Robert Hood,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Sister Nancy,
Dark Day,
Bill Near,
The Names,
Lalo Schifrin,
Robert Görl,
Joyce Sims,
The Happenings,
Wire,
The Moody Blues,
Wings, Wings, Wings, Wings.
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.