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 Bulgaria and from Edmonton.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Tomorrow. All the underground hits.
All Crime tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unwound 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pantytec record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Johnny Clarke,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Gang Green,
The Zeros,
Heaven 17,
Camouflage,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Al Stewart,
Yellowson,
Sunsets and Hearts,
David McCallum,
Donny Hathaway,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Gladiators,
Dave Gahan,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Amon Düül,
New Age Steppers,
Hoover,
Visage,
Lalo Schifrin,
Thompson Twins,
Silicon Teens,
Symarip,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Simply Red,
The Blackbyrds,
The Vogues,
the Swans,
Sam Rivers,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Yusef Lateef,
Ultra Naté,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Slits,
Gong,
Ponytail,
John Holt,
Cluster,
Sex Pistols,
Pulsallama,
Leonard Cohen,
Suburban Knight,
The Martian,
Schoolly D,
the Association,
Minor Threat,
Matthew Bourne,
Theoretical Girls,
Chrome,
Reagan Youth,
The Happenings,
Boz Scaggs,
Nik Kershaw,
Skriet,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Amazonics,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.