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 Vanuatu and from Bologna.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the snare 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 Shoche to the funk 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 Boogie Down Productions. All the underground hits.
All Radio Birdman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Terry Callier record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ornette Coleman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Heaven 17,
The Dirtbombs,
Ponytail,
Adolescents,
Kayak,
The Zeros,
Donald Byrd,
Pulsallama,
The Pop Group,
New York Dolls,
Pagans,
Sam Rivers,
Laurel Aitken,
Lucky Dragons,
Second Layer,
Avey Tare,
Jeff Lynne,
Pussy Galore,
Darondo,
Curtis Mayfield,
Derrick Morgan,
U.S. Maple,
Susan Cadogan,
Rosa Yemen,
The Toasters,
Bush Tetras,
Schoolly D,
The Dave Clark Five,
Todd Terry,
Marcia Griffiths,
Ultravox,
Deakin,
Electric Prunes,
John Lydon,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Count Five,
Monolake,
Nas,
Surgeon,
The Five Americans,
The Velvet Underground,
The Raincoats,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Janne Schatter,
Tommy Roe,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Monochrome Set,
the Bar-Kays,
The Walker Brothers,
Radio Birdman,
Inner City,
Icehouse,
the Swans,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Bill Near,
The Blues Magoos,
Jeru the Damaja,
FM Einheit,
Yellowson,
The Durutti Column,
Erasure, Erasure, Erasure, Erasure.
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.