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 Albania and from Columbus.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Smiths to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Joensuu 1685. All the underground hits.
All Black Bananas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Youth Brigade 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Holt,
Soft Cell,
Bad Manners,
One Last Wish,
Crooked Eye,
Colin Newman,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Victims,
The Cramps,
Pulsallama,
The Fugs,
Rhythm & Sound,
Sound Behaviour,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Second Layer,
Terry Callier,
Drive Like Jehu,
Joe Finger,
Vladislav Delay,
The Alarm Clocks,
Jacob Miller,
Visage,
Brick,
Letta Mbulu,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Avey Tare,
Pharoah Sanders,
Loose Ends,
The Last Poets,
John Cale,
Funky Four + One,
Ten City,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Yellowson,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Mo-Dettes,
Symarip,
The Offenders,
The Smoke,
Country Teasers,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Fire Engines,
Cal Tjader,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Cowsills,
Joensuu 1685,
Sugar Minott,
DJ Sneak,
Buzzcocks,
Albert Ayler,
The Misunderstood,
Junior Murvin,
Camberwell Now,
The Shadows of Knight,
Jandek,
Television,
Grandmaster Flash,
Jeff Lynne,
The Mojo Men,
Camouflage,
Mad Mike,
Popol Vuh,
Lalann, Lalann, Lalann, Lalann.
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.