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 Benin and from Taipei.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Bremen.
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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
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 Tropical Tobacco to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Panda Bear. All the underground hits.
All Joe Smooth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultravox record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Osbourne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Connie Case,
Moby Grape,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Boogie Down Productions,
John Foxx,
Rites of Spring,
Au Pairs,
Glenn Branca,
Pierre Henry,
Bill Wells,
The Angels of Light,
The J.B.'s,
Dark Day,
James White and The Blacks,
Porter Ricks,
Interpol,
Funkadelic,
Bad Manners,
Judy Mowatt,
Matthew Halsall,
Donny Hathaway,
Albert Ayler,
Saccharine Trust,
Black Flag,
Todd Rundgren,
Hoover,
Neu!,
Subhumans,
Accadde A,
Tubeway Army,
Archie Shepp,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Model 500,
DNA,
Newcleus,
F. McDonald,
Marvin Gaye,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Altered Images,
Ornette Coleman,
Blossom Toes,
The Evens,
Bush Tetras,
ABC,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
David Axelrod,
Popol Vuh,
New Age Steppers,
The Real Kids,
The Dead C,
Eddi Front,
The Standells,
The Fugs,
Pantaleimon,
U.S. Maple,
Urselle,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Saints,
UT,
Hasil Adkins,
Idris Muhammad,
Inner City,
Prince Buster,
Icehouse,
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.