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 Ecuador and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 Lou Reed 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 Dave Gahan to the rock 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 Lou Christie. All the underground hits.
All Echospace tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every ABBA 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Robert Hood,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Gang of Four,
AZ,
Roger Hodgson,
Wally Richardson,
Bill Near,
Adolescents,
Matthew Halsall,
Pharoah Sanders,
Marine Girls,
Babytalk,
The Last Poets,
E-Dancer,
Shoche,
Soul II Soul,
Stetsasonic,
the Bar-Kays,
Marshall Jefferson,
Nation of Ulysses,
Gil Scott Heron,
Freddie Wadling,
Technova,
Y Pants,
Junior Murvin,
The Motions,
Gang Starr,
The Raincoats,
The Slackers,
Crispian St. Peters,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Arab on Radar,
Brass Construction,
Barbara Tucker,
Moebius,
Anakelly,
John Lydon,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Ken Boothe,
The Fall,
Rakim,
JFA,
CMW,
Das Ding,
Blake Baxter,
Michelle Simonal,
EPMD,
Public Enemy,
Eric Copeland,
Laurel Aitken,
Roxy Music,
Curtis Mayfield,
Robert Wyatt,
Buzzcocks,
Judy Mowatt,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Peter & Gordon,
R.M.O.,
The Music Machine,
Aaron Thompson,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Roxette,
Patti Smith,
Lungfish, Lungfish, Lungfish, Lungfish.
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.