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 Afghanistan and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 PIL to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Oblivians. All the underground hits.
All Rufus Thomas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rites of Spring record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 an organ and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Charles Mingus record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ponytail,
Television,
Cluster,
Fat Boys,
Howard Jones,
Gabor Szabo,
Al Stewart,
The Human League,
Erykah Badu,
The Wake,
James White and The Blacks,
The Remains,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Piero Umiliani,
Technova,
EPMD,
Khruangbin,
The Zeros,
Mantronix,
Soft Machine,
New Order,
Minor Threat,
The Divine Comedy,
LL Cool J,
Tom Boy,
Colin Newman,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Walker Brothers,
Deadbeat,
The Pop Group,
John Holt,
The Motions,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Flesh Eaters,
The American Breed,
The Index,
L. Decosne,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Dual Sessions,
Hot Snakes,
Crash Course in Science,
John Cale,
Fugazi,
The J.B.'s,
Ken Boothe,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Cybotron,
Camberwell Now,
Flipper,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Monks,
La Düsseldorf,
The Sound,
Urselle,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Litter,
Adolescents,
Skarface,
The Shadows of Knight,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Black Flag,
Excepter,
Q and Not U,
Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra, Sun Ra.
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.