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 Azerbaijan and from Accra.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 theremin 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 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry to the rock kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Marshall Jefferson. All the underground hits.
All Fort Wilson Riot tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every La Düsseldorf record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 a chamberlin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Skriet record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron 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 Associates,
Althea and Donna,
The Cowsills,
The Red Krayola,
Whodini,
Country Teasers,
Matthew Halsall,
The Black Dice,
Minnie Riperton,
The Smoke,
Nirvana,
Brass Construction,
Sister Nancy,
Delta 5,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Electric Prunes,
Suburban Knight,
The Misunderstood,
the Bar-Kays,
Mad Mike,
The Slackers,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Ultimate Spinach,
World's Most,
Sex Pistols,
Graham Central Station,
Magma,
Angry Samoans,
Jacques Brel,
Kayak,
The Kinks,
Tomorrow,
The Gories,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Offenders,
Adolescents,
Mr. Review,
Stetsasonic,
The Last Poets,
The Trojans,
Delon & Dalcan,
Joey Negro,
Rakim,
The Remains,
Eve St. Jones,
The Blues Magoos,
Sam Rivers,
Mary Jane Girls,
Dorothy Ashby,
Joe Smooth,
Reagan Youth,
Joyce Sims,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Severed Heads,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Shadows of Knight,
Ronan,
Funky Four + One,
Max Romeo,
Grandmaster Flash,
Q65,
Jeff Mills,
Monks, Monks, Monks, Monks.
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.