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 Cameroon and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Barbara Tucker to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fort Wilson Riot. All the underground hits.
All Talk Talk tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Judy Mowatt 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Modern Lovers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeff Lynne,
Masters at Work,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Essential Logic,
Ken Boothe,
Stetsasonic,
Tropical Tobacco,
Agent Orange,
Pere Ubu,
Bizarre Inc.,
Supertramp,
Prince Buster,
Jeru the Damaja,
FM Einheit,
Davy DMX,
Theoretical Girls,
Graham Central Station,
Stiv Bators,
Cymande,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
EPMD,
Malaria!,
cv313,
China Crisis,
Johnny Clarke,
James White and The Blacks,
Lalann,
Drexciya,
The Blackbyrds,
Lower 48,
In Retrospect,
Lightning Bolt,
Al Stewart,
UT,
Steve Hackett,
Babytalk,
Altered Images,
The Modern Lovers,
Kurtis Blow,
Qualms,
Eve St. Jones,
Marshall Jefferson,
Dual Sessions,
Black Pus,
The Electric Prunes,
D'Angelo,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Josef K,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Fire Engines,
Porter Ricks,
a-ha,
Marmalade,
Moss Icon,
Shuggie Otis,
Derrick May,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Bobby Byrd,
Sarah Menescal,
The Golliwogs,
Jawbox,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Slave, Slave, Slave, Slave.
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.