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 Suriname and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Negative Approach to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Faraquet. All the underground hits.
All Eyeless In Gaza tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pagans 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a 10cc record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Laurel Aitken,
Crispian St. Peters,
Cybotron,
The Buckinghams,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Y Pants,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Monks,
Visage,
Alphaville,
The Modern Lovers,
Harmonia,
Todd Rundgren,
Marmalade,
Deadbeat,
The Residents,
The Skatalites,
Essential Logic,
Procol Harum,
Masters at Work,
Little Man,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
B.T. Express,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Max Romeo,
Stiv Bators,
Scan 7,
Black Flag,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Invisible,
The Searchers,
The Names,
Funky Four + One,
The Last Poets,
Altered Images,
Franke,
Rakim,
The Vogues,
Lindisfarne,
Ossler,
Minny Pops,
Lalann,
AZ,
the Slits,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Sound Behaviour,
T.S.O.L.,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Yusef Lateef,
UT,
Niagra,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
OOIOO,
Mantronix,
Bluetip,
Amon Düül,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Golliwogs,
John Cale,
CMW,
Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear.
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.