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 Rwanda and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 Glasgow and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Darondo to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Oppenheimer Analysis. All the underground hits.
All Basic Channel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & John Cale record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Trumans Water record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
Quando Quango,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Pagans,
Neil Young,
the Swans,
Blancmange,
CMW,
Minny Pops,
Khruangbin,
Guru Guru,
Todd Rundgren,
The Pretty Things,
Audionom,
Chrome,
Franke,
Banda Bassotti,
Bush Tetras,
The Slits,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Swans,
The Knickerbockers,
James White and The Blacks,
Bootsy Collins,
Alison Limerick,
Sunsets and Hearts,
John Lydon,
Junior Murvin,
The Smoke,
Alphaville,
48th St. Collective,
Pharoah Sanders,
Oblivians,
The Divine Comedy,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Spandau Ballet,
Y Pants,
Erasure,
Symarip,
The Last Poets,
Cymande,
Grey Daturas,
The Star Department,
The Golliwogs,
Joe Smooth,
Nico,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Wolf Eyes,
Siglo XX,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Names,
Roxy Music,
The Five Americans,
the Association,
Pierre Henry,
Severed Heads,
Flash Fearless,
Silicon Teens,
Aswad,
Eurythmics,
Technova, Technova, Technova, Technova.
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.