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 Kenya and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Sällskapet to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Toasters. All the underground hits.
All Louis and Bebe Barron tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Donny Hathaway record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 an arpeggiator and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a a-ha record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grauzone,
Suburban Knight,
Surgeon,
U.S. Maple,
Gil Scott Heron,
Sex Pistols,
Neu!,
Ultimate Spinach,
Erykah Badu,
Alphaville,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Leaves,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Walker Brothers,
Lindisfarne,
Isaac Hayes,
EPMD,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Japan,
The Cure,
Althea and Donna,
Second Layer,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Mr. Review,
Tommy Roe,
The Buckinghams,
Charles Mingus,
Funkadelic,
Mary Jane Girls,
Harpers Bizarre,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Gories,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Todd Terry,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Minor Threat,
Bobby Byrd,
Unwound,
AZ,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Cramps,
Minnie Riperton,
Ken Boothe,
Cal Tjader,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Crooked Eye,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Fad Gadget,
Maurizio,
Graham Central Station,
Danielle Patucci,
The Shadows of Knight,
Massinfluence,
Agitation Free,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Gang of Four,
Can,
Deepchord,
The Count Five,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.