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 Beijing.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Cabaret Voltaire to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Yusef Lateef. All the underground hits.
All Oblivians tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angels of Light & Akron/Family record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gang Green record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobby Byrd,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Sound,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Offenders,
Black Flag,
Grauzone,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Alton Ellis,
the Slits,
Radio Birdman,
Jacob Miller,
Altered Images,
Anakelly,
CMW,
Funky Four + One,
Sight & Sound,
Blossom Toes,
Neu!,
Avey Tare,
Fugazi,
Todd Rundgren,
Neil Young,
Lower 48,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Graham Central Station,
Frankie Knuckles,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Gun Club,
The Music Machine,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Symarip,
Sarah Menescal,
The Remains,
The Gories,
Albert Ayler,
MDC,
Animal Collective,
Scrapy,
The Fugs,
Nirvana,
Das Ding,
Scratch Acid,
Drive Like Jehu,
Visage,
Simply Red,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Camouflage,
Tears for Fears,
Bizarre Inc.,
X-101,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Country Teasers,
Magazine,
The American Breed,
The Electric Prunes,
Donny Hathaway,
Rotary Connection,
Nico,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Subhumans,
Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville.
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.