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 Lesotho 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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx to the electroclash 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 the Bar-Kays. All the underground hits.
All Bootsy's Rubber Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every PIL record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blake Baxter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Tim Buckley,
Model 500,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Magma,
The Last Poets,
Masters at Work,
Mo-Dettes,
Ituana,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Fluxion,
Metal Thangz,
Funky Four + One,
The Real Kids,
Slave,
Nirvana,
Surgeon,
Stereo Dub,
Youth Brigade,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Andrew Hill,
the Soft Cell,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Rosa Yemen,
Organ,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Cal Tjader,
Amon Düül II,
Eve St. Jones,
Harpers Bizarre,
Brand Nubian,
Scott Walker,
Fear,
The Index,
Don Cherry,
Ultimate Spinach,
Roxette,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ponytail,
Sound Behaviour,
Icehouse,
Flipper,
Echospace,
Tom Boy,
The New Christs,
Sonny Sharrock,
Accadde A,
Pagans,
Ultravox,
Outsiders,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Spandau Ballet,
MC5,
The Trojans,
Warsaw,
Junior Murvin,
Monks,
Harmonia,
Isaac Hayes,
Bill Wells,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Moss Icon, Moss Icon, Moss Icon, Moss Icon.
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.