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 Gabon and from New York.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Soulsonic Force to the disco 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 Dawn Penn. All the underground hits.
All The Angels of Light tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Clarke 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Electric Prunes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Walker Brothers,
The Grass Roots,
Angry Samoans,
Magma,
Reuben Wilson,
Aural Exciters,
New Order,
This Heat,
Prince Buster,
Severed Heads,
Circle Jerks,
Sarah Menescal,
Lindisfarne,
Blake Baxter,
The Beau Brummels,
Freddie Wadling,
DJ Style,
Quadrant,
The Sonics,
Jawbox,
Adolescents,
Black Bananas,
The Angels of Light,
The Velvet Underground,
Unrelated Segments,
The Five Americans,
Eurythmics,
Arthur Verocai,
Jacques Brel,
Swans,
Maleditus Sound,
Banda Bassotti,
Sex Pistols,
Camouflage,
In Retrospect,
Anthony Braxton,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bush Tetras,
Technova,
a-ha,
Jandek,
Sun City Girls,
PIL,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Hashim,
Kaleidoscope,
Traffic Nightmare,
Peter & Gordon,
Bad Manners,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Gang Green,
Danielle Patucci,
Gang Gang Dance,
Barry Ungar,
Agitation Free,
Bobby Byrd,
Gang of Four,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Star Department,
Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler.
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.