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 Yemen and from Portland.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the güiro 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 Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Black Pus. All the underground hits.
All Roy Ayers Ubiquity tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Liaisons Dangereuses 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Howard Jones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Todd Terry,
Ponytail,
The Five Americans,
Chris & Cosey,
The Cure,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Black Pus,
The Smiths,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Slackers,
Bill Wells,
The Modern Lovers,
The Offenders,
Cymande,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Cal Tjader,
Kaleidoscope,
Dual Sessions,
the Soft Cell,
Radiohead,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Magma,
Laurel Aitken,
John Foxx,
The Sound,
Pantaleimon,
The Young Rascals,
Gichy Dan,
Wings,
Robert Görl,
Henry Cow,
Eric Copeland,
8 Eyed Spy,
Jeff Mills,
Das Ding,
A Certain Ratio,
Hot Snakes,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Leaves,
Bauhaus,
Can,
Parry Music,
Erasure,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Ken Boothe,
Ronnie Foster,
The Residents,
the Human League,
Dark Day,
Brass Construction,
Reuben Wilson,
Half Japanese,
The Fugs,
The Fortunes,
Panda Bear,
Blake Baxter,
Amon Düül II,
Oblivians,
Pagans,
Spandau Ballet,
Index,
Ituana,
X-101, X-101, X-101, X-101.
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.