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 Barbados and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
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 Roger Hodgson to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 The Jesus and Mary Chain. All the underground hits.
All Camberwell Now tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Walker Brothers 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jacob Miller record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Mummies,
Kerri Chandler,
Matthew Halsall,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Nick Fraelich,
The Fall,
Marshall Jefferson,
Thee Headcoats,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Five Americans,
Black Moon,
Neu!,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Yusef Lateef,
Brothers Johnson,
Soft Cell,
Cecil Taylor,
Ornette Coleman,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Throbbing Gristle,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
EPMD,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Music Machine,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Funky Four + One,
the Normal,
the Soft Cell,
Easy Going,
the Swans,
The Pretty Things,
Tommy Roe,
Vainqueur,
The United States of America,
Aloha Tigers,
Guru Guru,
The Zeros,
Faraquet,
Reagan Youth,
Fat Boys,
Aural Exciters,
Letta Mbulu,
Oblivians,
Marmalade,
Dead Boys,
Mission of Burma,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Motions,
Crime,
Monks,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Groovy Waters,
Japan,
Liliput,
The Offenders,
Aswad,
The Last Poets,
Eric Copeland,
The Leaves, The Leaves, The Leaves, The Leaves.
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.