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 Jordan and from Johannesburg.
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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Metal Thangz to the funk 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 The Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All The Dave Clark Five tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Saints 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 güiro and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Liaisons Dangereuses record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Unwound,
Japan,
Laurel Aitken,
Isaac Hayes,
The Vogues,
Amon Düül,
PIL,
The Young Rascals,
The Sound,
the Human League,
Das Ding,
This Heat,
Symarip,
Livin' Joy,
L. Decosne,
Bobby Byrd,
Boz Scaggs,
Jerry's Kids,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Kool Moe Dee,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Joe Smooth,
DJ Style,
Black Pus,
Little Man,
Pussy Galore,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Sonics,
Minutemen,
Lungfish,
David McCallum,
Black Sheep,
Amazonics,
Nation of Ulysses,
Barclay James Harvest,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Surgeon,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Sexual Harrassment,
Popol Vuh,
Public Enemy,
Ten City,
The Neon Judgement,
Mark Hollis,
The Dead C,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Zeros,
Sex Pistols,
ABBA,
John Lydon,
Icehouse,
Bad Manners,
Colin Newman,
Masters at Work,
Anthony Braxton,
Henry Cow,
Don Cherry,
Con Funk Shun,
Severed Heads,
The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed, The American Breed.
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.