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 Gabon and from Accra.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Cosmic Jokers to the grunge 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 Bizarre Inc.. All the underground hits.
All Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Golliwogs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Piero Umiliani record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Amon Düül II,
Marine Girls,
Flipper,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Echospace,
Flash Fearless,
The Doors,
Animal Collective,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Joy Division,
The Selecter,
Derrick May,
Oneida,
Jacob Miller,
Glambeats Corp.,
Frankie Knuckles,
JFA,
Black Sheep,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Pierre Henry,
Ultra Naté,
Monolake,
Lucky Dragons,
The Index,
The Raincoats,
Accadde A,
Gang of Four,
The Beau Brummels,
Tom Boy,
Cecil Taylor,
Charles Mingus,
The Trojans,
Angry Samoans,
Crispy Ambulance,
Soul II Soul,
Quando Quango,
June Days,
KRS-One,
Audionom,
Absolute Body Control,
Idris Muhammad,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Theoretical Girls,
Jandek,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Lou Christie,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Harmonia,
Minny Pops,
Todd Rundgren,
Eric B and Rakim,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Cure,
Young Marble Giants,
Basic Channel,
Scan 7,
Nik Kershaw,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Arab on Radar,
Traffic Nightmare,
Soulsonic Force,
Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman.
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.