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 Vanuatu and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise show in 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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 snare 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 Ornette Coleman to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Wasted Youth. All the underground hits.
All Flipper tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every World's Most record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warren Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Neil Young,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Whodini,
cv313,
Colin Newman,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Bizarre Inc.,
Suicide,
the Human League,
Sight & Sound,
Judy Mowatt,
Tears for Fears,
The Dirtbombs,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The J.B.'s,
Sound Behaviour,
Masters at Work,
Connie Case,
Minnie Riperton,
Sex Pistols,
Moss Icon,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Camberwell Now,
The American Breed,
Joe Finger,
Drexciya,
Arab on Radar,
Robert Görl,
Essential Logic,
Sandy B,
Index,
The Beau Brummels,
Chrome,
The Music Machine,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Lakeside,
Spandau Ballet,
Alison Limerick,
Josef K,
Morten Harket,
Lindisfarne,
Black Moon,
The Gun Club,
Scott Walker,
The Evens,
Funkadelic,
Can,
Peter and Kerry,
H. Thieme,
Albert Ayler,
The Tremeloes,
Hashim,
The Gladiators,
Deakin,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
New Order,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
the Normal, the Normal, the Normal, the Normal.
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.