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 Mauritius and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Electric Prunes to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Index. All the underground hits.
All John Cale tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Sherman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 an arpeggiator and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barbara Tucker record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Faust,
Dennis Brown,
Kerrie Biddell,
Scan 7,
Yusef Lateef,
Robert Görl,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
the Human League,
Essential Logic,
Radio Birdman,
Thompson Twins,
Donny Hathaway,
The Electric Prunes,
Monolake,
Cal Tjader,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Gong,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Oblivians,
Model 500,
Swell Maps,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Piero Umiliani,
Erasure,
Groovy Waters,
Thee Headcoats,
Bush Tetras,
Warren Ellis,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Remains,
Faraquet,
Scratch Acid,
Donald Byrd,
Half Japanese,
Reagan Youth,
Camouflage,
Sonny Sharrock,
the Germs,
Gang Starr,
Wally Richardson,
Funkadelic,
Mandrill,
Andrew Hill,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Alton Ellis,
Guru Guru,
Boogie Down Productions,
Scientists,
Deadbeat,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Blancmange,
Barry Ungar,
The Pop Group,
Arab on Radar,
Rekid,
Mantronix,
The Searchers,
The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills.
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.