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 Benin and from New York.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the güiro 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 Ken Boothe to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Alice Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All Scan 7 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio 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 808 and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Slave record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Massinfluence,
Sun City Girls,
Black Sheep,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Excepter,
Pylon,
Idris Muhammad,
Slave,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Charles Mingus,
Crispy Ambulance,
Magma,
The Index,
Mark Hollis,
Toni Rubio,
Jeru the Damaja,
Althea and Donna,
Electric Prunes,
Underground Resistance,
Jandek,
Visage,
Organ,
the Bar-Kays,
Alison Limerick,
Babytalk,
Flipper,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Modern Lovers,
Basic Channel,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Vogues,
Sarah Menescal,
Glambeats Corp.,
Colin Newman,
Flash Fearless,
David McCallum,
Danielle Patucci,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Dead C,
Kayak,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
FM Einheit,
K-Klass,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Ten City,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Blackbyrds,
Sällskapet,
Erasure,
Negative Approach,
The Searchers,
Sex Pistols,
The Techniques,
The Busters,
Siglo XX,
Soft Cell,
Cameo,
The Smiths,
Marine Girls,
Alton Ellis,
Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage.
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.