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 Tanzania and from Paris.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 oboe 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 The Evens to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Symarip. All the underground hits.
All Youth Brigade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultramagnetic MC's record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 marimba and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New York Dolls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
Anthony Braxton,
The Alarm Clocks,
Metal Thangz,
Cheater Slicks,
the Fania All-Stars,
Rosa Yemen,
Matthew Halsall,
The Techniques,
Jimmy McGriff,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ohio Players,
The Real Kids,
L. Decosne,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Franke,
Matthew Bourne,
The Wake,
X-Ray Spex,
Glambeats Corp.,
Donald Byrd,
Jacob Miller,
Cluster,
Neil Young,
Todd Terry,
Black Bananas,
Michelle Simonal,
The Cowsills,
The Gun Club,
Basic Channel,
The Buckinghams,
Crime,
the Swans,
Nico,
Black Flag,
Man Eating Sloth,
Bluetip,
Gichy Dan,
Boz Scaggs,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
David McCallum,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Connie Case,
The Smoke,
Gang Gang Dance,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Wire,
MC5,
Black Pus,
Eric Copeland,
Colin Newman,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Fire Engines,
Marine Girls,
Gang Starr,
Amon Düül,
Howard Jones,
Marshall Jefferson,
Babytalk,
ABC,
The Slits,
The Sonics,
R.M.O.,
Groovy Waters, Groovy Waters, Groovy Waters, Groovy Waters.
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.