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 Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Ken Boothe to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Ronnie Foster. All the underground hits.
All Richard Hell and the Voidoids tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rotary Connection record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marvin Gaye,
The Angels of Light,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Seeds,
Charles Mingus,
MC5,
Sex Pistols,
Bill Near,
Dawn Penn,
This Heat,
Zapp,
Absolute Body Control,
Dark Day,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Vogues,
L. Decosne,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Moby Grape,
Kaleidoscope,
David Axelrod,
Skriet,
Second Layer,
Donny Hathaway,
The Five Americans,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Black Dice,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Barbara Tucker,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Spoonie Gee,
Marcia Griffiths,
Roy Ayers,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Accadde A,
the Bar-Kays,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Sugar Minott,
Black Sheep,
Leonard Cohen,
Bronski Beat,
Aural Exciters,
Brand Nubian,
Sexual Harrassment,
FM Einheit,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Monks,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Raincoats,
Wally Richardson,
ABC,
Quando Quango,
The Cowsills,
Fear,
Moss Icon,
Inner City,
E-Dancer,
Fad Gadget,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sparks,
Derrick Morgan,
Ronan,
UT, UT, UT, UT.
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.