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 Georgia and from Bologna.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Dirtbombs to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Toasters. All the underground hits.
All LL Cool J tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dennis Brown 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Vladislav Delay record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Danielle Patucci,
Cybotron,
Fad Gadget,
Circle Jerks,
cv313,
The Kinks,
Gerry Rafferty,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Magma,
OOIOO,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Gabor Szabo,
The Seeds,
Leonard Cohen,
Terry Callier,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Move,
Bad Manners,
The J.B.'s,
Radio Birdman,
Electric Prunes,
Don Cherry,
Y Pants,
Funky Four + One,
The Trojans,
Ash Ra Tempel,
ABC,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Fuzztones,
Vladislav Delay,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Fluxion,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
EPMD,
the Normal,
JFA,
Man Eating Sloth,
LL Cool J,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
the Germs,
Wasted Youth,
Max Romeo,
The Remains,
Carl Craig,
Gregory Isaacs,
Freddie Wadling,
Crooked Eye,
Fifty Foot Hose,
U.S. Maple,
Howard Jones,
The Zeros,
Panda Bear,
Warren Ellis,
Barry Ungar,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Human League,
Qualms,
DNA,
Altered Images,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.