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 Macedonia and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 theremin 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 Mary Jane Girls to the funk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Pantytec. All the underground hits.
All Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Move record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mo-Dettes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Boogie Down Productions,
Nation of Ulysses,
Ken Boothe,
Blancmange,
Ten City,
Michelle Simonal,
ABC,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Electric Prunes,
Camberwell Now,
The Five Americans,
Sight & Sound,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Barbara Tucker,
Joe Finger,
Blossom Toes,
Rufus Thomas,
Pierre Henry,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Warren Ellis,
Soulsonic Force,
Alton Ellis,
Rites of Spring,
Harry Pussy,
Sound Behaviour,
Cymande,
DNA,
Stockholm Monsters,
Pantaleimon,
Stetsasonic,
The Grass Roots,
Country Teasers,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
UT,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Gladiators,
Gang Green,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Pussy Galore,
Zapp,
Ronan,
The Residents,
Lee Hazlewood,
In Retrospect,
Lyres,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
David Axelrod,
David McCallum,
OOIOO,
The Blackbyrds,
Susan Cadogan,
Monolake,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Brass Construction,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Minnie Riperton,
EPMD,
Guru Guru,
Radiohead,
The Trojans,
The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs.
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.