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 Belgium and from Columbus.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Dawn Penn to the disco 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 The Music Machine. All the underground hits.
All Sällskapet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Sherman 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Saints 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?
Grandmaster Flash,
Prince Buster,
Radio Birdman,
Morten Harket,
These Immortal Souls,
Ice-T,
Isaac Hayes,
Roger Hodgson,
Suicide,
Bob Dylan,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
June Days,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
John Coltrane,
Alison Limerick,
Dead Boys,
Gang Starr,
Eric Dolphy,
Wire,
Man Parrish,
The Last Poets,
Y Pants,
Supertramp,
Can,
the Germs,
David Bowie,
The United States of America,
Fela Kuti,
Sugar Minott,
The Fugs,
Underground Resistance,
La Düsseldorf,
Mary Jane Girls,
Archie Shepp,
Amon Düül II,
Lyres,
The Pop Group,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Anthony Braxton,
Main Source,
Joy Division,
The Blackbyrds,
Wally Richardson,
Bang On A Can,
E-Dancer,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Rod Modell,
Sight & Sound,
Eurythmics,
Zero Boys,
Deadbeat,
the Slits,
Al Stewart,
The Seeds,
Excepter,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Camouflage,
The Velvet Underground,
Andrew Hill,
Wings,
Ronnie Foster,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.