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 Romania and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 Lagos and Bologna.
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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Rakim to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 of Four. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Intrusion 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soft Cell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Curtis Mayfield,
The Gories,
Fluxion,
Gang Starr,
Bobby Sherman,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Lightning Bolt,
Yazoo,
Max Romeo,
Yusef Lateef,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Smoke,
The Happenings,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
the Human League,
Terry Callier,
Frankie Knuckles,
KRS-One,
the Sonics,
Severed Heads,
Shuggie Otis,
Grey Daturas,
MDC,
Man Parrish,
DJ Sneak,
Chrome,
Robert Hood,
Black Bananas,
The Modern Lovers,
Faraquet,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
the Germs,
The Fugs,
Porter Ricks,
Stockholm Monsters,
Heaven 17,
The Raincoats,
Chris Corsano,
Boz Scaggs,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Amazonics,
Peter and Kerry,
Marmalade,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Aural Exciters,
B.T. Express,
Ultra Naté,
Intrusion,
Fatback Band,
Nils Olav,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Matthew Halsall,
Johnny Clarke,
Roy Ayers,
Lalann,
The Cosmic Jokers,
the Normal,
Jandek,
Kenny Larkin,
JFA,
Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth.
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.