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 Indonesia and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Amon Düül to the crunk 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 Delta 5. All the underground hits.
All Eve St. Jones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scientists record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Malaria!,
Y Pants,
Parry Music,
Ultra Naté,
The Dirtbombs,
U.S. Maple,
The Alarm Clocks,
Con Funk Shun,
a-ha,
Yusef Lateef,
The Cosmic Jokers,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Zeros,
Magma,
Radio Birdman,
Lou Christie,
Jacques Brel,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Mummies,
Q and Not U,
Avey Tare,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Black Bananas,
Hashim,
Slave,
Oneida,
Stockholm Monsters,
Fad Gadget,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Lalann,
Scratch Acid,
Sonny Sharrock,
Negative Approach,
Rufus Thomas,
Charles Mingus,
Bobby Womack,
Sight & Sound,
Quando Quango,
Nico,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
DNA,
Lakeside,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Traffic Nightmare,
Amon Düül II,
The Gap Band,
Faraquet,
Schoolly D,
The Smiths,
Colin Newman,
Dennis Brown,
Swans,
Pantytec,
The United States of America,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Ice-T,
June Days,
Boredoms,
the Normal,
Moebius,
In Retrospect,
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.