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 Burundi and from New York.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Litter to the disco 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 Slave. All the underground hits.
All Rhythm & Sound tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Be Bop Deluxe 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Birthday Party record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Whodini,
Archie Shepp,
Con Funk Shun,
Basic Channel,
Charles Mingus,
John Cale,
The Neon Judgement,
Lower 48,
The New Christs,
Hoover,
Matthew Halsall,
Maleditus Sound,
Alphaville,
Boz Scaggs,
Ultra Naté,
Sandy B,
The Sonics,
Jeru the Damaja,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Robert Hood,
Ossler,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Warren Ellis,
the Bar-Kays,
Susan Cadogan,
Piero Umiliani,
Tom Boy,
EPMD,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Silicon Teens,
JFA,
Intrusion,
David Axelrod,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Amon Düül II,
Janne Schatter,
The Dirtbombs,
Depeche Mode,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Bob Dylan,
Joe Finger,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Stockholm Monsters,
China Crisis,
Judy Mowatt,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Aural Exciters,
Gang of Four,
James White and The Blacks,
Electric Prunes,
Jandek,
cv313,
The Toasters,
Scientists,
The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible.
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.