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 Kuwait and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 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 The Last Poets 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 Cybotron. All the underground hits.
All DJ Style tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kerri Chandler 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Deadbeat,
Ultimate Spinach,
Archie Shepp,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Jawbox,
Cheater Slicks,
KRS-One,
Depeche Mode,
The Fall,
Supertramp,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
the Sonics,
Ten City,
Sarah Menescal,
Liliput,
Simply Red,
Dead Boys,
Aural Exciters,
Au Pairs,
Idris Muhammad,
Interpol,
Brothers Johnson,
Blossom Toes,
Average White Band,
In Retrospect,
The Durutti Column,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Unwound,
Sound Behaviour,
The Techniques,
Procol Harum,
Morten Harket,
Bauhaus,
Henry Cow,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Donald Byrd,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Beau Brummels,
The Gap Band,
X-Ray Spex,
Aloha Tigers,
Camouflage,
The Skatalites,
Fluxion,
Thompson Twins,
Fugazi,
Clear Light,
Half Japanese,
Silicon Teens,
Cecil Taylor,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Yazoo,
Kayak,
Pagans,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Sugar Minott,
Robert Wyatt,
Stereo Dub,
Crash Course in Science,
Nick Fraelich,
Youth Brigade,
The United States of America,
Curtis Mayfield,
Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget.
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.