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 Djibouti and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Bronski Beat to the techno kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Gian Franco Pienzio. All the underground hits.
All Alphaville tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kayak 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 an arpeggiator and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bang on a Can All-Stars record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aswad,
Fela Kuti,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Connie Case,
Grauzone,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Kerri Chandler,
The Remains,
Lakeside,
the Slits,
Q65,
the Soft Cell,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Essential Logic,
Scratch Acid,
Colin Newman,
Gang Green,
Warsaw,
Section 25,
Schoolly D,
Royal Trux,
Dorothy Ashby,
MC5,
Robert Hood,
Bill Wells,
Infiniti,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Eric Dolphy,
Swell Maps,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Kaleidoscope,
Sun City Girls,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Radiopuhelimet,
Quantec,
Malaria!,
Camberwell Now,
Marvin Gaye,
Todd Terry,
Spandau Ballet,
Lindisfarne,
The Doobie Brothers,
Delon & Dalcan,
Andrew Hill,
Idris Muhammad,
The Slackers,
Freddie Wadling,
The Young Rascals,
The Angels of Light,
Slave,
Darondo,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Ossler,
Sister Nancy,
Tim Buckley,
Yusef Lateef,
Barrington Levy,
PIL,
Bootsy Collins,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Tom Boy, Tom Boy, Tom Boy, Tom Boy.
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.