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 France and from Bologna.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the organ 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 Darondo to the disco 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 Michelle Simonal. All the underground hits.
All Kayak tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Swans 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bad Manners record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Toasters,
Metal Thangz,
Model 500,
X-102,
the Normal,
Charles Mingus,
Grandmaster Flash,
Khruangbin,
Cecil Taylor,
Drexciya,
Hardrive,
Lakeside,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Flash Fearless,
John Cale,
Girls At Our Best!,
Faust,
Funky Four + One,
Dead Boys,
Bad Manners,
Neu!,
The Fugs,
Adolescents,
Piero Umiliani,
Minor Threat,
Crime,
The Associates,
The Electric Prunes,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Black Dice,
The Fire Engines,
Sonny Sharrock,
David Axelrod,
Scan 7,
Rosa Yemen,
Royal Trux,
E-Dancer,
Aural Exciters,
Man Eating Sloth,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Agitation Free,
Ice-T,
The Barracudas,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Rod Modell,
Marmalade,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Ultra Naté,
Robert Wyatt,
Crash Course in Science,
The Blues Magoos,
Fluxion,
One Last Wish,
Fat Boys,
Scion,
Sandy B,
Swans,
Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia.
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.