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 Oman and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 arpeggiator 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 Idris Muhammad to the rap 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 Connie Case. All the underground hits.
All Lafayette Afro Rock Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Flipper record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Intrusion,
Basic Channel,
Bobby Womack,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Dead C,
Television Personalities,
Silicon Teens,
The Velvet Underground,
The Residents,
Fela Kuti,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Average White Band,
Stiv Bators,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Hot Snakes,
Boogie Down Productions,
X-Ray Spex,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
MC5,
The Fuzztones,
John Lydon,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Dark Day,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Bill Near,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Talk Talk,
Young Marble Giants,
The Monochrome Set,
Main Source,
Monolake,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Human League,
Flipper,
The Trojans,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Radiohead,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Agitation Free,
Tomorrow,
The Victims,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Sun City Girls,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Roxy Music,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
In Retrospect,
The Electric Prunes,
The Motions,
The Remains,
Banda Bassotti,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
the Human League,
Bauhaus,
Eyeless In Gaza,
FM Einheit,
DNA,
D'Angelo,
T. Rex,
Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne.
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.