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 Barbados and from Hong Kong.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Gabor Szabo to the grunge 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 Groovy Waters. All the underground hits.
All Swell Maps tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Searchers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 synthesizer and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Clear Light record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jacques Brel,
Stiv Bators,
The Smoke,
Colin Newman,
Yellowson,
Donny Hathaway,
Roger Hodgson,
Derrick Morgan,
Cameo,
Rites of Spring,
Pet Shop Boys,
Brass Construction,
Outsiders,
Tears for Fears,
Eddi Front,
Nick Fraelich,
The Divine Comedy,
The Mummies,
The Selecter,
Warsaw,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
X-Ray Spex,
Johnny Clarke,
Alton Ellis,
Bobby Womack,
OOIOO,
Clear Light,
Tom Boy,
Average White Band,
Scion,
Easy Going,
Zero Boys,
Rhythm & Sound,
Dark Day,
Arthur Verocai,
Arab on Radar,
Organ,
The Skatalites,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Fire Engines,
Scan 7,
Fatback Band,
Youth Brigade,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Moss Icon,
CMW,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Roxy Music,
The Flesh Eaters,
Tomorrow,
Quando Quango,
Monolake,
Y Pants,
Juan Atkins,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Saccharine Trust,
Suburban Knight,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Techniques, The Techniques, The Techniques, The Techniques.
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.