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 Ethiopia and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Dave Clark Five to the techno 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 Godley & Creme. All the underground hits.
All Camouflage tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Osbourne 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Liliput record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Faust,
Robert Wyatt,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Bush Tetras,
Minor Threat,
The Slits,
Terry Callier,
Blake Baxter,
The Mojo Men,
Bootsy Collins,
These Immortal Souls,
Godley & Creme,
Black Bananas,
The Moody Blues,
The Fugs,
Tres Demented,
Index,
Cameo,
Anthony Braxton,
The Grass Roots,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Remains,
Kerri Chandler,
Q and Not U,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Cecil Taylor,
Vainqueur,
Skriet,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Rosa Yemen,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Mummies,
Joyce Sims,
Skaos,
Altered Images,
Sunsets and Hearts,
World's Most,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Animal Collective,
Fear,
Easy Going,
Scientists,
Alice Coltrane,
Au Pairs,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Rapeman,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ultra Naté,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Scan 7,
Sparks,
Byron Stingily,
Wings,
MDC,
Throbbing Gristle,
Janne Schatter,
Dave Gahan,
Oblivians,
Agent Orange,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.