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 El Salvador and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Kaleidoscope to the jazz kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Jesper Dahlbäck. All the underground hits.
All Red Lorry Yellow Lorry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Zero Boys 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Agent Orange,
Gabor Szabo,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Wake,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Soulsonic Force,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Flesh Eaters,
World's Most,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Q and Not U,
Alison Limerick,
Jandek,
Minnie Riperton,
Big Daddy Kane,
Rhythm & Sound,
Porter Ricks,
Joe Smooth,
Public Enemy,
The Searchers,
These Immortal Souls,
Byron Stingily,
Minny Pops,
FM Einheit,
The New Christs,
The Residents,
Funkadelic,
Black Sheep,
Sonny Sharrock,
Mark Hollis,
John Cale,
Alton Ellis,
The Move,
Todd Terry,
Eric Copeland,
Lindisfarne,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Jawbox,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
DJ Sneak,
John Lydon,
Blake Baxter,
Popol Vuh,
Curtis Mayfield,
UT,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ludus,
Jacob Miller,
The Martian,
Steve Hackett,
Brick,
The Star Department,
Country Teasers,
Mandrill,
Cecil Taylor,
The Alarm Clocks,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Oneida,
The Blues Magoos,
Jimmy McGriff,
the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell.
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.