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 Sri Lanka and from Taipei.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 guitar 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 Groovy Waters to the jazz 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 Vainqueur. All the underground hits.
All The Trojans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Knickerbockers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scott Walker record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Frankie Knuckles,
Tim Buckley,
Fatback Band,
Yellowson,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Dead Boys,
Aaron Thompson,
the Germs,
The Associates,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Donny Hathaway,
The Monochrome Set,
Vainqueur,
Grey Daturas,
David McCallum,
The Seeds,
Marvin Gaye,
Scrapy,
Essential Logic,
Deepchord,
The Cramps,
Jesper Dahlback,
Little Man,
The Residents,
the Sonics,
Darondo,
Pet Shop Boys,
MC5,
Morten Harket,
Idris Muhammad,
Mary Jane Girls,
Erasure,
EPMD,
Amon Düül,
R.M.O.,
Soul II Soul,
the Normal,
Unwound,
Susan Cadogan,
Rufus Thomas,
Grauzone,
The Searchers,
The Smiths,
Parry Music,
T.S.O.L.,
Ponytail,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Barrington Levy,
The Sonics,
The Star Department,
the Swans,
Tropical Tobacco,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Thompson Twins,
John Lydon,
Unrelated Segments,
Tomorrow,
The Busters,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Hashim,
Flash Fearless,
Excepter, Excepter, Excepter, Excepter.
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.