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 Eritrea and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 The Smiths to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Lee Hazlewood. All the underground hits.
All Ossler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brand Nubian 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Man Parrish,
Organ,
Royal Trux,
R.M.O.,
Livin' Joy,
Johnny Osbourne,
Scion,
Wasted Youth,
Radiohead,
Bad Manners,
CMW,
X-102,
Yusef Lateef,
Erasure,
The Count Five,
The Shadows of Knight,
Scratch Acid,
Porter Ricks,
Eli Mardock,
Ken Boothe,
Terrestrial Tones,
Nas,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Offenders,
The Slackers,
Q65,
The Names,
Scott Walker,
Guru Guru,
Wolf Eyes,
Marine Girls,
Mo-Dettes,
Kerrie Biddell,
the Human League,
Trumans Water,
Prince Buster,
Qualms,
ABBA,
Sixth Finger,
Marshall Jefferson,
Connie Case,
Ice-T,
Warsaw,
Brand Nubian,
The Wake,
Rosa Yemen,
Nirvana,
Matthew Bourne,
Mark Hollis,
The Fortunes,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Fuzztones,
The Residents,
Bluetip,
Symarip,
Leonard Cohen,
Amazonics,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Bizarre Inc.,
China Crisis,
Archie Shepp,
Derrick May, Derrick May, Derrick May, Derrick May.
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.