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 Panama and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 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 10cc to the jazz kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Spoonie Gee. All the underground hits.
All Bizarre Inc. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Surgeon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dawn Penn record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Los Fastidios,
Neil Young,
Jimmy McGriff,
Amazonics,
Shoche,
Wolf Eyes,
Jerry's Kids,
Procol Harum,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Bronski Beat,
Girls At Our Best!,
Joe Finger,
T.S.O.L.,
The Martian,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Alarm Clocks,
Gang of Four,
Tears for Fears,
Chris & Cosey,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Peter and Kerry,
Ohio Players,
The Last Poets,
Schoolly D,
Vainqueur,
Scott Walker,
Dennis Brown,
The Music Machine,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Neon Judgement,
James White and The Blacks,
Adolescents,
The Sonics,
Black Sheep,
Tim Buckley,
Mo-Dettes,
R.M.O.,
The Golliwogs,
Khruangbin,
Wings,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Young Marble Giants,
Junior Murvin,
The Count Five,
Audionom,
Lalann,
Angry Samoans,
PIL,
the Soft Cell,
Jeff Mills,
Soft Machine,
Blancmange,
John Coltrane,
Kerrie Biddell,
Niagra,
Eden Ahbez,
Surgeon,
Iggy Pop,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Avey Tare,
The Birthday Party,
F. McDonald,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.