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 Ireland and from Milan.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Larry & the Blue Notes to the dance kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 The Mummies. All the underground hits.
All The Gun Club tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Slits record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Janne Schatter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jerry Gold Smith,
Wings,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Moody Blues,
The Last Poets,
The Raincoats,
Lebanon Hanover,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Qualms,
Procol Harum,
Bootsy Collins,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Gabor Szabo,
Banda Bassotti,
Audionom,
ABC,
the Bar-Kays,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
These Immortal Souls,
Graham Central Station,
Whodini,
Sugar Minott,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Joensuu 1685,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Bobby Byrd,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Dead Boys,
X-Ray Spex,
Alphaville,
Pussy Galore,
Khruangbin,
Henry Cow,
Suburban Knight,
The Monks,
10cc,
The Trojans,
Barrington Levy,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Victims,
Spandau Ballet,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Harmonia,
New York Dolls,
Public Enemy,
Adolescents,
Fela Kuti,
Public Image Ltd.,
Todd Terry,
Country Joe & The Fish,
AZ,
Thee Headcoats,
Supertramp,
Ken Boothe,
Dennis Brown,
Symarip,
Todd Rundgren,
Peter & Gordon,
Jeff Lynne,
Soft Machine,
Outsiders,
Buzzcocks,
Gong, Gong, Gong, Gong.
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.