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 Libya and from Manchester.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the 808 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 The Monochrome Set to the techno 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 Massinfluence. All the underground hits.
All Cymande tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joe Finger record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Camberwell Now record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Offenders,
Aloha Tigers,
Bobby Byrd,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Fire Engines,
Soul II Soul,
DNA,
Gong,
Spoonie Gee,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Gap Band,
Funky Four + One,
Lower 48,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Interpol,
Mantronix,
Gregory Isaacs,
10cc,
Sun City Girls,
Sonny Sharrock,
Arcadia,
The Sonics,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Cameo,
Procol Harum,
Sister Nancy,
T. Rex,
Black Sheep,
Moebius,
The Stooges,
Gil Scott Heron,
Public Enemy,
Pagans,
Babytalk,
Unrelated Segments,
Faust,
Public Image Ltd.,
Slave,
Judy Mowatt,
The Beau Brummels,
UT,
Surgeon,
Wolf Eyes,
Todd Rundgren,
Colin Newman,
Janne Schatter,
Radiohead,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Robert Wyatt,
Tom Boy,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Amon Düül,
Jesper Dahlback,
Swans,
John Cale,
Second Layer,
The Kinks,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Hasil Adkins,
The Dead C,
Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader.
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.