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 Croatia 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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 China Crisis to the crunk 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band. All the underground hits.
All Dawn Penn tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pylon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 808 and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Flesh Eaters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bauhaus,
Barry Ungar,
The Techniques,
Skarface,
Rhythm & Sound,
Brand Nubian,
Easy Going,
Traffic Nightmare,
Quadrant,
The Barracudas,
Avey Tare,
The Mummies,
Parry Music,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Robert Wyatt,
Jawbox,
Harmonia,
Basic Channel,
Zapp,
James White and The Blacks,
Jimmy McGriff,
Mo-Dettes,
Young Marble Giants,
Grandmaster Flash,
Black Pus,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Eli Mardock,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Television Personalities,
Harpers Bizarre,
Schoolly D,
DNA,
Banda Bassotti,
Zero Boys,
Bobby Byrd,
China Crisis,
Soulsonic Force,
Kayak,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Sonics,
Siglo XX,
Hardrive,
Gastr Del Sol,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Standells,
Alton Ellis,
Faust,
Lou Reed,
Patti Smith,
A Certain Ratio,
Joe Finger,
Anthony Braxton,
Public Enemy,
Subhumans,
the Sonics,
Archie Shepp,
Amazonics, Amazonics, Amazonics, Amazonics.
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.