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 Malawi and from Portland.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Index to the techno 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 Second Layer. All the underground hits.
All Donny Hathaway tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nation of Ulysses record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warsaw record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bush Tetras,
Skarface,
Sister Nancy,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Kayak,
Desert Stars,
the Germs,
Black Sheep,
Soul II Soul,
The Gap Band,
Oblivians,
Barrington Levy,
Little Man,
The Grass Roots,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Kenny Larkin,
Frankie Knuckles,
MC5,
Ituana,
Sex Pistols,
Inner City,
Patti Smith,
Au Pairs,
Slick Rick,
Junior Murvin,
Minutemen,
Warren Ellis,
Wally Richardson,
Erasure,
Reuben Wilson,
The Associates,
Throbbing Gristle,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Tremeloes,
Mo-Dettes,
Gang of Four,
Funkadelic,
Urselle,
The Mojo Men,
The United States of America,
The Toasters,
Second Layer,
Henry Cow,
Masters at Work,
Ohio Players,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
KRS-One,
Cluster,
Los Fastidios,
Arab on Radar,
Jandek,
Scrapy,
Lebanon Hanover,
X-Ray Spex,
The Alarm Clocks,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Shuggie Otis,
Delta 5,
Piero Umiliani,
Sound Behaviour,
Matthew Bourne,
Grandmaster Flash,
Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté.
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.