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 Mali and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Minor Threat to the punk 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 Mo-Dettes. All the underground hits.
All Aural Exciters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Althea and Donna record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roxy Music,
Marine Girls,
Country Teasers,
the Bar-Kays,
These Immortal Souls,
The Smiths,
Kenny Larkin,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Human League,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Sound,
Mission of Burma,
Skarface,
Soft Cell,
This Heat,
Leonard Cohen,
Tubeway Army,
The Beau Brummels,
The Detroit Cobras,
Unrelated Segments,
MC5,
Crime,
Jacob Miller,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Radiohead,
Ronan,
The Flesh Eaters,
Barbara Tucker,
F. McDonald,
Tommy Roe,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Sonics,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Scientists,
The Fire Engines,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Dead Boys,
Bill Near,
The Divine Comedy,
Popol Vuh,
Faraquet,
Archie Shepp,
Con Funk Shun,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sarah Menescal,
The Golliwogs,
Index,
The Zeros,
Au Pairs,
Eve St. Jones,
Circle Jerks,
The Techniques,
The Grass Roots,
Glambeats Corp.,
Bronski Beat,
Brass Construction,
The Litter,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Harmonia,
Mad Mike,
Bill Wells,
the Swans, the Swans, the Swans, the Swans.
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.