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 Iraq and from Seoul.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Delhi.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Bobby Byrd to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Erasure. All the underground hits.
All Brick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ajijia Myrayebe 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dawn Penn record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Dirtbombs,
Basic Channel,
The Divine Comedy,
Leonard Cohen,
Peter & Gordon,
Alton Ellis,
The Angels of Light,
Sixth Finger,
Radiopuhelimet,
La Düsseldorf,
Crispian St. Peters,
Ohio Players,
Rapeman,
Heaven 17,
Joe Finger,
Ossler,
Alison Limerick,
48th St. Collective,
The United States of America,
Sparks,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Robert Hood,
Skarface,
James White and The Blacks,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Mars,
Althea and Donna,
MC5,
the Slits,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
the Swans,
Lindisfarne,
the Germs,
Funkadelic,
X-Ray Spex,
The Modern Lovers,
Pole,
The Mummies,
The Index,
Mark Hollis,
the Soft Cell,
Groovy Waters,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Erasure,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Soft Machine,
Hardrive,
The Real Kids,
Amon Düül II,
the Normal,
Cecil Taylor,
Boredoms,
Banda Bassotti,
Laurel Aitken,
Robert Görl,
Idris Muhammad,
X-102,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mantronix,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Cameo,
The Motions,
Skaos, Skaos, Skaos, Skaos.
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.