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 South Sudan and from Jakarta.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Hong Kong.
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 clarinet 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 Lee Hazlewood to the disco kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Dave Clark Five. All the underground hits.
All Dark Day tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang of Four record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 a linndrum and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Shadows of Knight record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Last Poets,
The Sonics,
Freddie Wadling,
Fear,
Marvin Gaye,
Fatback Band,
Bizarre Inc.,
Brick,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Names,
the Soft Cell,
Derrick Morgan,
Reagan Youth,
Nico,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Real Kids,
Eddi Front,
Shoche,
Duran Duran,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Malaria!,
Pet Shop Boys,
Arcadia,
Outsiders,
Janne Schatter,
Con Funk Shun,
Inner City,
Ultravox,
Warsaw,
H. Thieme,
The Happenings,
Lee Hazlewood,
the Swans,
New Order,
Quantec,
Juan Atkins,
Youth Brigade,
Pharoah Sanders,
the Bar-Kays,
The Raincoats,
Sun Ra,
Ohio Players,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Matthew Bourne,
Traffic Nightmare,
Procol Harum,
Aaron Thompson,
Audionom,
The Fall,
Section 25,
Infiniti,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Massinfluence,
Barry Ungar,
Nils Olav,
Quadrant,
Terrestrial Tones,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Bill Wells,
Donald Byrd,
Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens.
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.