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 Poland and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 spring reverb 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 Reuben Wilson to the rap 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 Brass Construction. All the underground hits.
All Sexual Harrassment tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ituana record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Howard Jones,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Cowsills,
China Crisis,
Scott Walker,
Blancmange,
Q and Not U,
The Human League,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Gap Band,
Con Funk Shun,
Funky Four + One,
Susan Cadogan,
Accadde A,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Mo-Dettes,
The Grass Roots,
Absolute Body Control,
Can,
Darondo,
Gregory Isaacs,
Avey Tare,
Rufus Thomas,
Boogie Down Productions,
Motorama,
June Days,
LL Cool J,
8 Eyed Spy,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Henry Cow,
The Monks,
The Smiths,
T.S.O.L.,
AZ,
Mandrill,
Aaron Thompson,
The Slits,
T. Rex,
Mission of Burma,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Buckinghams,
Erykah Badu,
Negative Approach,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Crispy Ambulance,
D'Angelo,
Eli Mardock,
Robert Görl,
Khruangbin,
The Saints,
Peter & Gordon,
Easy Going,
Johnny Osbourne,
Rites of Spring,
One Last Wish,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Crime,
Joe Smooth,
Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp.
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.