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 South Sudan and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Trumans Water to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Grass Roots. All the underground hits.
All Scion tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Zeros record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 chamberlin and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Flash Fearless record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Half Japanese,
Pole,
Audionom,
Country Teasers,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Susan Cadogan,
Fear,
June of 44,
Althea and Donna,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Quando Quango,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Residents,
Sun City Girls,
The Doobie Brothers,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Desert Stars,
Tomorrow,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Faust,
Electric Prunes,
Joe Smooth,
Dorothy Ashby,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Flesh Eaters,
Black Moon,
The Mojo Men,
The Toasters,
Main Source,
Barclay James Harvest,
Aaron Thompson,
Bill Near,
The Dirtbombs,
Lalann,
Darondo,
Nico,
Sound Behaviour,
Pantaleimon,
Pet Shop Boys,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Cybotron,
Henry Cow,
Robert Wyatt,
The Busters,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Dead C,
Quantec,
Eric Dolphy,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Funky Four + One,
Roy Ayers,
Quadrant,
Ornette Coleman,
Kaleidoscope,
Kerrie Biddell,
Grey Daturas,
Scientists, Scientists, Scientists, Scientists.
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.