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 Senegal and from Lagos.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 mellotron 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 Laurel Aitken to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Bobby Sherman. All the underground hits.
All Marc Almond tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eric Dolphy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Men They Couldn't Hang record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Monochrome Set,
Charles Mingus,
Amazonics,
Procol Harum,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Lyres,
Max Romeo,
Neil Young,
The Detroit Cobras,
Dual Sessions,
The Happenings,
Jacques Brel,
Parry Music,
Al Stewart,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Derrick Morgan,
The Dead C,
Albert Ayler,
the Slits,
Brothers Johnson,
Scrapy,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lee Hazlewood,
Althea and Donna,
Graham Central Station,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Toni Rubio,
Gang Gang Dance,
Soul Sonic Force,
T. Rex,
Rhythm & Sound,
Chris & Cosey,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Move,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Donald Byrd,
Kas Product,
Kaleidoscope,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Gang Green,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Neu!,
A Certain Ratio,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Fall,
The Martian,
Swell Maps,
Black Pus,
Letta Mbulu,
Tropical Tobacco,
Brass Construction,
Blake Baxter,
Yusef Lateef,
Country Teasers,
Aural Exciters,
The Birthday Party,
Aloha Tigers,
Minutemen,
John Foxx,
Erasure,
Average White Band,
The Moleskins,
Brand Nubian,
The Velvet Underground,
Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now.
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.