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 Yemen and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 oboe 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 Louis and Bebe Barron to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Black Dice. All the underground hits.
All Visage tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crispian St. Peters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Count Five record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fugazi,
Slave,
Popol Vuh,
Scratch Acid,
Procol Harum,
China Crisis,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Skatalites,
Panda Bear,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Blackbyrds,
Audionom,
the Swans,
Black Flag,
Marcia Griffiths,
Inner City,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Niagra,
Intrusion,
Monolake,
The Detroit Cobras,
Gregory Isaacs,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Mojo Men,
Grandmaster Flash,
Gabor Szabo,
Essential Logic,
Soulsonic Force,
Al Stewart,
Peter and Kerry,
Sun City Girls,
Colin Newman,
X-102,
Jacques Brel,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Fire Engines,
Chris & Cosey,
The Index,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Gang Green,
Henry Cow,
Bobby Byrd,
Magma,
Junior Murvin,
Organ,
Subhumans,
Ken Boothe,
Lee Hazlewood,
Siglo XX,
Absolute Body Control,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Human League,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Echospace,
Pagans,
Faraquet,
Cecil Taylor,
OOIOO,
Suicide,
Rosa Yemen, Rosa Yemen, Rosa Yemen, Rosa Yemen.
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.