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 Cuba and from Bologna.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Mexico City.
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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the theremin 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 Inner City to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Pretty Things. All the underground hits.
All Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Young Marble Giants record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 spring reverb and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
June Days,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Smoke,
Sandy B,
Black Bananas,
Eddi Front,
Gang Starr,
The Toasters,
Barbara Tucker,
Tom Boy,
The Zeros,
Crime,
New Age Steppers,
Crispian St. Peters,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Skaos,
X-102,
Television Personalities,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Selecter,
Quantec,
Gichy Dan,
Mandrill,
Robert Hood,
Dorothy Ashby,
CMW,
Mary Jane Girls,
Joe Finger,
Brick,
The Fortunes,
Glenn Branca,
Wolf Eyes,
Brass Construction,
Minutemen,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Velvet Underground,
Gerry Rafferty,
Josef K,
Rekid,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Funky Four + One,
The Smiths,
The Busters,
Loose Ends,
These Immortal Souls,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Intrusion,
Bootsy Collins,
Heaven 17,
Darondo,
Joey Negro,
Scientists,
Blake Baxter,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Vogues,
Johnny Clarke,
Silicon Teens,
Unwound,
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.