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 Tanzania and from Manila.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band to the grime 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 Gang Green. All the underground hits.
All Man Eating Sloth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Pop Group record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cymande record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yaz,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Real Kids,
the Slits,
Althea and Donna,
Severed Heads,
Piero Umiliani,
Moebius,
Bang On A Can,
Barclay James Harvest,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
ABBA,
The Smiths,
Hasil Adkins,
The Dirtbombs,
The Skatalites,
Cal Tjader,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
the Human League,
New York Dolls,
Suburban Knight,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Scratch Acid,
Underground Resistance,
Babytalk,
Eurythmics,
Sun City Girls,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Sound Behaviour,
The Moleskins,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Nils Olav,
The Velvet Underground,
Nirvana,
Brand Nubian,
Zapp,
Lou Christie,
Davy DMX,
Ornette Coleman,
The Remains,
Deadbeat,
Dawn Penn,
The Kinks,
Pagans,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Country Teasers,
DJ Style,
Cecil Taylor,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Qualms,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Saccharine Trust,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Malaria!,
Juan Atkins,
Prince Buster,
Oblivians,
The Knickerbockers,
The Vogues,
Television,
Groovy Waters,
Sister Nancy,
Henry Cow,
Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion.
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.