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 Pakistan and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu to the dance 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 Suburban Knight. All the underground hits.
All Circle Jerks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brand Nubian 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joey Negro record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Dead C,
Mission of Burma,
China Crisis,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Cybotron,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Robert Wyatt,
Underground Resistance,
Moby Grape,
Circle Jerks,
Gang Starr,
Porter Ricks,
Nico,
Leonard Cohen,
ABBA,
Alice Coltrane,
Von Mondo,
Bobbi Humphrey,
the Fania All-Stars,
Suburban Knight,
Nas,
Soul Sonic Force,
Make Up,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Electric Prunes,
Joe Finger,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Thee Headcoats,
Los Fastidios,
K-Klass,
Skaos,
Alton Ellis,
Whodini,
Funkadelic,
Grandmaster Flash,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
the Germs,
Jerry's Kids,
Fugazi,
Duran Duran,
Sound Behaviour,
Ultra Naté,
Sugar Minott,
Shoche,
Saccharine Trust,
The Wake,
Eric Dolphy,
Das Ding,
Radiopuhelimet,
Soft Cell,
Godley & Creme,
John Coltrane,
the Soft Cell,
Skriet,
Deepchord,
Piero Umiliani,
Negative Approach,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins, Bootsy Collins.
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.