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 Brunei and from Halifax.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Dawn Penn to the rap 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 Ken Boothe. All the underground hits.
All Avey Tare tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joyce Sims record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fela Kuti,
the Soft Cell,
Deakin,
The Durutti Column,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Busters,
Alton Ellis,
Chris & Cosey,
Clear Light,
Faust,
48th St. Collective,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Arcadia,
Leonard Cohen,
ABBA,
Gong,
Mr. Review,
Echospace,
Ornette Coleman,
The Neon Judgement,
UT,
Simply Red,
Gang Starr,
Sexual Harrassment,
New Age Steppers,
Dawn Penn,
Kerrie Biddell,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Erykah Badu,
Alison Limerick,
Stetsasonic,
Cybotron,
Average White Band,
Darondo,
EPMD,
The Gladiators,
Brand Nubian,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Lalann,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
FM Einheit,
Von Mondo,
Q65,
Funkadelic,
the Human League,
Procol Harum,
Lalo Schifrin,
Kerri Chandler,
Bizarre Inc.,
T.S.O.L.,
Cecil Taylor,
Minnie Riperton,
Todd Terry,
Pharoah Sanders,
Colin Newman,
Althea and Donna,
Pere Ubu,
Duran Duran,
Subhumans,
Stockholm Monsters,
Circle Jerks,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra.
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.