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 Malawi and from Shanghai.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 the Bar-Kays to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Soul II Soul. All the underground hits.
All The Knickerbockers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Shuggie Otis record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tomorrow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Spoonie Gee,
Television Personalities,
Bizarre Inc.,
Donny Hathaway,
Trumans Water,
Crime,
T. Rex,
The Mummies,
Ronnie Foster,
Black Moon,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Bronski Beat,
Dawn Penn,
Magazine,
Sex Pistols,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Doors,
Sound Behaviour,
Byron Stingily,
Patti Smith,
Alice Coltrane,
48th St. Collective,
David Bowie,
The Dave Clark Five,
Youth Brigade,
the Sonics,
The Last Poets,
Camberwell Now,
The Leaves,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Funkadelic,
Rotary Connection,
The Music Machine,
Freddie Wadling,
Marc Almond,
Scratch Acid,
The Fortunes,
Barbara Tucker,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Moss Icon,
Gong,
Smog,
Leonard Cohen,
The Misunderstood,
Susan Cadogan,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Joyce Sims,
Oneida,
Cecil Taylor,
The Cowsills,
Stiv Bators,
Tomorrow,
Scion,
The Saints,
Qualms,
Crispian St. Peters,
Mary Jane Girls,
Alphaville,
Terry Callier,
Big Daddy Kane,
Charles Mingus,
Pulsallama,
Nils Olav,
Man Parrish, Man Parrish, Man Parrish, Man Parrish.
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.