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 Kiribati and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Dorothy Ashby to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Gastr Del Sol. All the underground hits.
All Jimmy McGriff tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every 8 Eyed Spy 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Monks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Au Pairs,
the Bar-Kays,
The Evens,
Ultra Naté,
The Human League,
LL Cool J,
The Gap Band,
The Victims,
Drive Like Jehu,
Patti Smith,
Moss Icon,
The Last Poets,
Chrome,
Sarah Menescal,
Electric Light Orchestra,
New Order,
The Selecter,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Deadbeat,
Groovy Waters,
FM Einheit,
Sun City Girls,
Marcia Griffiths,
OOIOO,
The Standells,
China Crisis,
Bob Dylan,
The Offenders,
Camouflage,
David Bowie,
Drexciya,
Trumans Water,
Pierre Henry,
Letta Mbulu,
Accadde A,
The Cramps,
Boogie Down Productions,
Nick Fraelich,
The Red Krayola,
Dennis Brown,
Robert Wyatt,
Hardrive,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Thompson Twins,
Ralphi Rosario,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Johnny Clarke,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Unwound,
Rites of Spring,
Joy Division,
Prince Buster,
Ultimate Spinach,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Grandmaster Flash,
Average White Band,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Joe Smooth,
EPMD,
Soulsonic Force,
Faust,
Albert Ayler,
Hoover, Hoover, Hoover, Hoover.
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.