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 Papua New Guinea and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 harpsichord 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 Crash Course in Science 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 Selector Dub Narcotic. All the underground hits.
All The Sonics tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Five Americans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Terry Callier record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
T.S.O.L.,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Electric Prunes,
Boredoms,
Lalann,
Slave,
Metal Thangz,
John Cale,
Agitation Free,
DJ Style,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Reuben Wilson,
Moebius,
Can,
Iggy Pop,
Scrapy,
Connie Case,
The Cosmic Jokers,
PIL,
The Tremeloes,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Pretty Things,
The Cure,
David Axelrod,
Derrick Morgan,
Chrome,
Soul Sonic Force,
Piero Umiliani,
Scott Walker,
Joe Finger,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Blancmange,
Depeche Mode,
La Düsseldorf,
The Human League,
Moby Grape,
Prince Buster,
Scan 7,
Boz Scaggs,
Byron Stingily,
Underground Resistance,
The Saints,
AZ,
The Red Krayola,
Eli Mardock,
KRS-One,
Circle Jerks,
The Walker Brothers,
Excepter,
Joey Negro,
Big Daddy Kane,
Blake Baxter,
Maurizio,
Erasure,
Tommy Roe,
Radiopuhelimet,
Negative Approach,
The Moody Blues,
Slick Rick, Slick Rick, Slick Rick, Slick Rick.
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.