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 Algeria and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Marmalade to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Soulsonic Force. All the underground hits.
All Blossom Toes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alice Coltrane record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 chamberlin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a John Holt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Cramps,
The Pretty Things,
Funkadelic,
Cluster,
Eric B and Rakim,
Loose Ends,
Wire,
The Vogues,
Tom Boy,
Depeche Mode,
Dawn Penn,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Names,
Los Fastidios,
Moby Grape,
Shoche,
Camberwell Now,
Ornette Coleman,
Carl Craig,
Warsaw,
Alton Ellis,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Johnny Clarke,
Scan 7,
Neu!,
Excepter,
Sun City Girls,
Donald Byrd,
The Angels of Light,
Sam Rivers,
X-Ray Spex,
Morten Harket,
Fat Boys,
Slick Rick,
Nik Kershaw,
Boredoms,
Fatback Band,
Skarface,
Michelle Simonal,
E-Dancer,
John Cale,
The Electric Prunes,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
ABC,
The Barracudas,
John Foxx,
DJ Style,
Hardrive,
Moss Icon,
Althea and Donna,
Leonard Cohen,
David Bowie,
Johnny Osbourne,
Little Man,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Kayak,
Smog,
T. Rex,
Prince Buster,
The Alarm Clocks,
Jandek, Jandek, Jandek, Jandek.
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.