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 Cape Verde and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Oppenheimer Analysis 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 The Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Das Ding tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Simply Red 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
The Wake,
Ossler,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Gories,
Absolute Body Control,
Harpers Bizarre,
Black Bananas,
Agent Orange,
Outsiders,
The Fuzztones,
Sixth Finger,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Vogues,
Amon Düül II,
Theoretical Girls,
Electric Prunes,
The Sound,
The Moleskins,
Sonny Sharrock,
John Holt,
Buzzcocks,
Depeche Mode,
Deakin,
The Skatalites,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Barracudas,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Dave Gahan,
Bauhaus,
Shoche,
Gabor Szabo,
Visage,
Barclay James Harvest,
U.S. Maple,
Barry Ungar,
Glenn Branca,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Kerri Chandler,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Maurizio,
AZ,
Anthony Braxton,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Golliwogs,
Youth Brigade,
Frankie Knuckles,
Average White Band,
Dennis Brown,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Robert Wyatt,
The Slackers,
The Fall,
The Blackbyrds,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The New Christs,
Lou Christie,
Oblivians,
Suicide,
Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour.
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.