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 Barbados and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1962.
I was there at the first Guess Who show in Winnipeg.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 chamberlin 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 Heaven 17 to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Siglo XX. All the underground hits.
All Black Flag tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alton Ellis 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pierre Henry,
Barrington Levy,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Can,
Joey Negro,
Crash Course in Science,
the Association,
Matthew Halsall,
Jandek,
Prince Buster,
Saccharine Trust,
David Axelrod,
Monks,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Mighty Diamonds,
ABBA,
Eric Copeland,
FM Einheit,
Radio Birdman,
The Electric Prunes,
Blake Baxter,
Eli Mardock,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Adolescents,
Inner City,
Derrick May,
Eric B and Rakim,
Joe Finger,
The Grass Roots,
Radiohead,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
James White and The Blacks,
Sandy B,
Mad Mike,
Ituana,
The Five Americans,
Peter and Kerry,
The Mummies,
The Walker Brothers,
Max Romeo,
Amon Düül II,
Silicon Teens,
The New Christs,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Cal Tjader,
Franke,
Gang of Four,
Tubeway Army,
The Residents,
Skriet,
Bronski Beat,
The Wake,
Girls At Our Best!,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Soft Cell,
The Fugs,
Jerry's Kids,
Pantytec,
Isaac Hayes,
Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps.
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.