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 Barbados and from Madrid.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the sitar 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 Gregory Isaacs to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Spandau Ballet. All the underground hits.
All The Blues Magoos tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Motorama record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 808 and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Unwound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Count Five,
Cymande,
Porter Ricks,
Index,
Zero Boys,
Mandrill,
The Monks,
The Modern Lovers,
Rekid,
Qualms,
Nirvana,
Sonny Sharrock,
The United States of America,
Wire,
Erasure,
Das Ding,
Colin Newman,
Slick Rick,
Gastr Del Sol,
Nick Fraelich,
Joyce Sims,
The Remains,
Lindisfarne,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Raincoats,
Ten City,
Jacques Brel,
Glenn Branca,
The Barracudas,
Ralphi Rosario,
Matthew Bourne,
the Bar-Kays,
Symarip,
Dorothy Ashby,
Tomorrow,
Wally Richardson,
Mary Jane Girls,
X-101,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Ronnie Foster,
Alton Ellis,
Simply Red,
The Five Americans,
Reagan Youth,
Funkadelic,
Public Image Ltd.,
Scratch Acid,
Ultimate Spinach,
Swell Maps,
Livin' Joy,
Intrusion,
Sparks,
Boredoms,
The Wake,
Cecil Taylor,
Pantytec,
DJ Sneak,
Lower 48,
Al Stewart, Al Stewart, Al Stewart, Al Stewart.
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.