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 Dominica and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Tom Boy to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Motorama. All the underground hits.
All Surgeon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ponytail record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Modern Lovers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Josef K,
Popol Vuh,
Gabor Szabo,
Erasure,
Kenny Larkin,
Dead Boys,
Echospace,
The J.B.'s,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Gun Club,
Grauzone,
Monks,
Simply Red,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Q65,
Gang Starr,
Peter and Kerry,
ABC,
Ronan,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Half Japanese,
This Heat,
The Golliwogs,
Lungfish,
Shuggie Otis,
The Raincoats,
DJ Sneak,
The Red Krayola,
48th St. Collective,
The Misunderstood,
Darondo,
Tom Boy,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
China Crisis,
Chrome,
Pierre Henry,
Isaac Hayes,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Malaria!,
DNA,
Glenn Branca,
kango's stein massive,
Wire,
Jerry's Kids,
Joy Division,
The Cure,
Dawn Penn,
The Shadows of Knight,
Cluster,
Agent Orange,
Royal Trux,
Cheater Slicks,
Clear Light,
Heaven 17,
Erykah Badu,
The Count Five,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Graham Central Station, Graham Central Station, Graham Central Station, Graham Central Station.
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.