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 Uruguay and from London.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 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 Scratch Acid to the rock 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 Marcia Griffiths. All the underground hits.
All Derrick May tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sight & Sound record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Buckinghams record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
JFA,
Aaron Thompson,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Wire,
Hoover,
Eden Ahbez,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Brick,
Lightning Bolt,
Smog,
Sex Pistols,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Slick Rick,
Anthony Braxton,
Marmalade,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Basic Channel,
Youth Brigade,
Kool Moe Dee,
Gastr Del Sol,
Gang Green,
Quadrant,
Metal Thangz,
Carl Craig,
Cluster,
Prince Buster,
Eric B and Rakim,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Cramps,
Quando Quango,
The Saints,
The Dead C,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Nik Kershaw,
In Retrospect,
Bauhaus,
the Slits,
Lungfish,
Swans,
Bad Manners,
Soul Sonic Force,
Marine Girls,
Mr. Review,
Make Up,
Interpol,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
New Order,
Wolf Eyes,
Terrestrial Tones,
June Days,
The Misunderstood,
Nation of Ulysses,
a-ha,
Johnny Osbourne,
the Bar-Kays,
The Knickerbockers,
Nick Fraelich,
the Normal, the Normal, the Normal, the Normal.
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.