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 East Timor and from Winnipeg.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Camberwell Now to the funk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. All the underground hits.
All Big Daddy Kane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eric Dolphy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Heaven 17 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Monks,
Bobby Byrd,
The Zeros,
Sun City Girls,
The Detroit Cobras,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Unrelated Segments,
Al Stewart,
Fad Gadget,
The Tremeloes,
the Bar-Kays,
The Vogues,
Second Layer,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Skatalites,
Symarip,
The Cure,
Sun Ra,
The Barracudas,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Gregory Isaacs,
Sound Behaviour,
Man Eating Sloth,
Goldenarms,
Erasure,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Steve Hackett,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
AZ,
FM Einheit,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Bronski Beat,
Gerry Rafferty,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
In Retrospect,
MC5,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Alice Coltrane,
New Age Steppers,
Rites of Spring,
The Golliwogs,
The Remains,
Faraquet,
Fear,
Ponytail,
Soul Sonic Force,
Scientists,
John Foxx,
Brass Construction,
Bootsy Collins,
John Lydon,
Brothers Johnson,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Crispy Ambulance,
Little Man,
The Grass Roots,
Sandy B,
Gil Scott Heron,
Rotary Connection,
Quadrant,
Agitation Free, Agitation Free, Agitation Free, Agitation Free.
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.