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 India and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Circle Jerks to the rock 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 Robert Wyatt. All the underground hits.
All EPMD tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grauzone record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Subhumans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Ultra Naté,
Soft Cell,
The Walker Brothers,
Tropical Tobacco,
Brick,
B.T. Express,
Altered Images,
Gabor Szabo,
Technova,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Flash Fearless,
Bronski Beat,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Brass Construction,
Sarah Menescal,
Brand Nubian,
Crooked Eye,
Model 500,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Tomorrow,
The Fuzztones,
Reuben Wilson,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
the Human League,
Mad Mike,
Pantaleimon,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
8 Eyed Spy,
Average White Band,
Scientists,
Barbara Tucker,
Sun Ra,
The Doobie Brothers,
Fugazi,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Evens,
The Residents,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Todd Terry,
Procol Harum,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Jesper Dahlback,
One Last Wish,
David Axelrod,
the Swans,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Toasters,
Lou Christie,
The Grass Roots,
Chrome,
Spandau Ballet,
The Leaves,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Tremeloes,
Rekid,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Little Man,
The Gap Band,
The Moleskins,
Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster, Ronnie Foster.
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.