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 Antigua and from Glasgow.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 guitar 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 Wings to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Eric Dolphy. All the underground hits.
All Fifty Foot Hose tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Golliwogs 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 spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soul II Soul,
The American Breed,
Harmonia,
The Real Kids,
The Smiths,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Funky Four + One,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Roxy Music,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
OOIOO,
Minny Pops,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Moebius,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Cramps,
David Axelrod,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Davy DMX,
Wasted Youth,
Wings,
Mark Hollis,
Nico,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Offenders,
Soft Cell,
The Happenings,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Techniques,
Stetsasonic,
Reuben Wilson,
Nick Fraelich,
The Residents,
Jandek,
Amazonics,
Nirvana,
Symarip,
Absolute Body Control,
Unrelated Segments,
Reagan Youth,
Danielle Patucci,
Flash Fearless,
The Selecter,
Joey Negro,
Erasure,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Shuggie Otis,
The Moody Blues,
Marc Almond,
Rotary Connection,
Alton Ellis,
PIL,
Bobby Sherman,
Eric Dolphy,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Todd Rundgren,
Circle Jerks,
Barrington Levy,
China Crisis,
K-Klass,
Henry Cow,
Vladislav Delay,
Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme.
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.