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 Tanzania and from Sao Paulo.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Cluster to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Maleditus Sound. All the underground hits.
All Sun City Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Todd Terry record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mars record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Janne Schatter,
Theoretical Girls,
Suicide,
Fugazi,
Black Sheep,
Barry Ungar,
Spoonie Gee,
Banda Bassotti,
MC5,
Cluster,
The Blues Magoos,
Ohio Players,
Rod Modell,
John Cale,
The Trojans,
Monks,
Rhythm & Sound,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Fluxion,
Surgeon,
Marc Almond,
Tropical Tobacco,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Mark Hollis,
Sugar Minott,
Tears for Fears,
The Moleskins,
Smog,
The Beau Brummels,
Faraquet,
Gang Gang Dance,
Animal Collective,
Arab on Radar,
David Axelrod,
Skriet,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Residents,
Accadde A,
Cabaret Voltaire,
H. Thieme,
Kenny Larkin,
The United States of America,
Iggy Pop,
Fat Boys,
Kaleidoscope,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Gap Band,
China Crisis,
Reagan Youth,
Deadbeat,
The Walker Brothers,
Public Enemy,
Bill Near,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Sex Pistols,
Joy Division,
Mary Jane Girls,
Cybotron,
Model 500, Model 500, Model 500, Model 500.
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.