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 the UAE and from Mexico City.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Ten City to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Slits. All the underground hits.
All Todd Terry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Piero Umiliani record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Electric Light Orchestra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Thompson Twins,
La Düsseldorf,
Nils Olav,
Barrington Levy,
Robert Wyatt,
The Trojans,
Maleditus Sound,
Althea and Donna,
Quando Quango,
Delon & Dalcan,
Das Ding,
Negative Approach,
Average White Band,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Prince Buster,
Toni Rubio,
The Gun Club,
Pulsallama,
Wally Richardson,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Joe Smooth,
The Human League,
Television,
Masters at Work,
ABC,
Scan 7,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Audionom,
Q and Not U,
Alton Ellis,
Minnie Riperton,
Gong,
The Birthday Party,
The Black Dice,
Skaos,
Parry Music,
Black Bananas,
Alice Coltrane,
R.M.O.,
Sarah Menescal,
Mission of Burma,
Quantec,
Nick Fraelich,
Sandy B,
Y Pants,
The Fugs,
Monolake,
The Kinks,
Eddi Front,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Albert Ayler,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Drive Like Jehu,
Juan Atkins,
Basic Channel,
Public Enemy,
Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring.
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.