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 India and from Spokane.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Terrestrial Tones to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Pussy Galore. All the underground hits.
All Robert Wyatt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jeff Lynne 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a London Community Gospel Choir record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Curtis Mayfield,
Mark Hollis,
Unwound,
Masters at Work,
The Happenings,
Soft Cell,
The Blackbyrds,
The Litter,
Leonard Cohen,
Rosa Yemen,
F. McDonald,
The Busters,
Monolake,
The Real Kids,
Crispy Ambulance,
Minny Pops,
Das Ding,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Minor Threat,
Supertramp,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Fortunes,
Moebius,
Wings,
Bluetip,
Sister Nancy,
Gabor Szabo,
Rufus Thomas,
the Soft Cell,
Bad Manners,
Loose Ends,
Scientists,
Big Daddy Kane,
X-101,
Bronski Beat,
Dennis Brown,
Arcadia,
Mad Mike,
The Durutti Column,
The Knickerbockers,
Jeff Lynne,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Yazoo,
Goldenarms,
Babytalk,
Peter & Gordon,
The Cure,
The Music Machine,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Human League,
Underground Resistance,
Barrington Levy,
PIL,
Joyce Sims,
Patti Smith,
New York Dolls,
Smog,
Idris Muhammad,
Warsaw,
Television,
The Electric Prunes,
Suburban Knight,
Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside.
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.