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 Liberia and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1963 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 guitar 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 Crispy Ambulance to the techno 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 Judy Mowatt. All the underground hits.
All Albert Ayler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Faraquet record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gun Club,
Colin Newman,
The Standells,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Steve Hackett,
Ultimate Spinach,
Avey Tare,
The Kinks,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Camberwell Now,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Gang Gang Dance,
Moby Grape,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Easy Going,
The Associates,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Durutti Column,
Kas Product,
the Soft Cell,
Scion,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Soft Cell,
Gang Green,
Arcadia,
Carl Craig,
The Smiths,
Moebius,
Grauzone,
Interpol,
Rites of Spring,
The Blackbyrds,
Gil Scott Heron,
Bobby Byrd,
X-101,
R.M.O.,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Music Machine,
Kerrie Biddell,
Davy DMX,
Cybotron,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Kurtis Blow,
Organ,
Joe Finger,
48th St. Collective,
B.T. Express,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Animal Collective,
Warren Ellis,
Don Cherry,
Maleditus Sound,
Technova,
Country Teasers,
Mo-Dettes,
10cc,
The Raincoats,
Marmalade, Marmalade, Marmalade, Marmalade.
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.