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 Germany and from Toronto.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the guitar 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 the Sonics to the jazz 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 Ten City. All the underground hits.
All Crash Course in Science tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Althea and Donna 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bad Manners record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
John Holt,
Grey Daturas,
The Divine Comedy,
Severed Heads,
The Angels of Light,
Silicon Teens,
Delon & Dalcan,
PIL,
Juan Atkins,
Morten Harket,
Mark Hollis,
The Star Department,
U.S. Maple,
The Five Americans,
Scratch Acid,
Sun City Girls,
Von Mondo,
Roger Hodgson,
the Soft Cell,
John Coltrane,
Trumans Water,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Circle Jerks,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Minny Pops,
Scan 7,
Archie Shepp,
The Associates,
The Gladiators,
The Moody Blues,
Black Sheep,
Inner City,
Harry Pussy,
Sparks,
ABC,
Shoche,
Matthew Halsall,
Ultimate Spinach,
Niagra,
Nik Kershaw,
Echospace,
Lower 48,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Joyce Sims,
Glambeats Corp.,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Funky Four + One,
Sun Ra,
D'Angelo,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Minnie Riperton,
Subhumans,
Pere Ubu,
Althea and Donna,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Sonics,
Marshall Jefferson,
Rites of Spring,
Judy Mowatt,
Andrew Hill,
Zero Boys,
Swans,
Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood.
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.