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 Burundi and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Bobby Hutcherson to the grunge 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 Laurel Aitken. All the underground hits.
All Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Excepter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Banda Bassotti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Prince Buster,
Moby Grape,
Faust,
Inner City,
One Last Wish,
Mars,
Curtis Mayfield,
The New Christs,
Hashim,
Chris Corsano,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Blancmange,
Yusef Lateef,
Colin Newman,
Ronan,
Schoolly D,
the Swans,
Terry Callier,
Can,
a-ha,
Connie Case,
Pylon,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Patti Smith,
Minor Threat,
Jeru the Damaja,
Jacob Miller,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Tears for Fears,
Duran Duran,
Gong,
Eddi Front,
Liliput,
Slick Rick,
Flipper,
Desert Stars,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Raincoats,
10cc,
The Modern Lovers,
Agent Orange,
Steve Hackett,
Zero Boys,
Pussy Galore,
The Misunderstood,
Icehouse,
Ludus,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Ituana,
London Community Gospel Choir,
K-Klass,
The Dead C,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Big Daddy Kane,
The Searchers,
Roxy Music,
Delta 5,
Smog,
Massinfluence,
Yellowson, Yellowson, Yellowson, Yellowson.
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.