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 Albania and from Glasgow.
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 Mexico City and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Eric Dolphy to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 James White and The Blacks. All the underground hits.
All Pere Ubu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Basic Channel record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Schoolly D record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Ultravox,
Steve Hackett,
The Velvet Underground,
Pole,
T.S.O.L.,
The Moody Blues,
Harry Pussy,
Peter and Kerry,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Ken Boothe,
the Soft Cell,
Clear Light,
Second Layer,
Marc Almond,
Ronnie Foster,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Jandek,
Bobby Sherman,
Ten City,
Sarah Menescal,
Black Pus,
Mission of Burma,
Public Enemy,
Brass Construction,
Cal Tjader,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Music Machine,
Lalann,
ABC,
Theoretical Girls,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Piero Umiliani,
Ice-T,
The New Christs,
Marmalade,
James White and The Blacks,
OOIOO,
Moby Grape,
Funky Four + One,
The Real Kids,
Sexual Harrassment,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Animal Collective,
The Walker Brothers,
Graham Central Station,
Au Pairs,
Sandy B,
Rufus Thomas,
The Monks,
Joy Division,
The Grass Roots,
Jeru the Damaja,
Monks,
The Victims,
Tommy Roe,
The Slits,
Motorama,
Al Stewart,
Television, Television, Television, Television.
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.