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 Togo and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Cymande to the crunk 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 Bluetip. All the underground hits.
All Flamin' Groovies tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Archie Shepp 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eric Copeland record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dark Day,
Reuben Wilson,
The Birthday Party,
The Blackbyrds,
David McCallum,
John Lydon,
Suburban Knight,
the Sonics,
Scan 7,
Lindisfarne,
The Smiths,
The Fugs,
Parry Music,
The Doors,
Ohio Players,
Gang of Four,
the Association,
Man Parrish,
Traffic Nightmare,
Todd Rundgren,
Visage,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Robert Wyatt,
Gong,
Erykah Badu,
Monolake,
Crooked Eye,
Deadbeat,
Arcadia,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Sound,
Wire,
Make Up,
Rites of Spring,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Althea and Donna,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Intrusion,
Television Personalities,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Shuggie Otis,
Judy Mowatt,
Electric Prunes,
Desert Stars,
Malaria!,
Barrington Levy,
Subhumans,
Peter & Gordon,
Warsaw,
Lee Hazlewood,
Japan,
Simply Red,
Dead Boys,
Sällskapet,
The Slits,
Tropical Tobacco,
Barbara Tucker,
H. Thieme,
Magazine,
The Index,
Lyres,
the Swans, the Swans, the Swans, the Swans.
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.