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 Turkey and from Tehran.
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 1969 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Funky Four + One to the jazz 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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family. All the underground hits.
All Sugar Minott tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Essential Logic 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bad Manners record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Neon Judgement,
Matthew Bourne,
the Human League,
Country Teasers,
Unwound,
Robert Wyatt,
The Blackbyrds,
The Wake,
Technova,
Panda Bear,
The Skatalites,
Siglo XX,
Ronan,
Bush Tetras,
Howard Jones,
the Association,
Judy Mowatt,
Warsaw,
Thee Headcoats,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Sun Ra,
Nick Fraelich,
The Golliwogs,
Eve St. Jones,
Glenn Branca,
The Pop Group,
David Axelrod,
Minnie Riperton,
The Electric Prunes,
Crispian St. Peters,
Quadrant,
Boogie Down Productions,
Parry Music,
Kenny Larkin,
Bad Manners,
Ornette Coleman,
The Gladiators,
Jacob Miller,
Gang Green,
Kerri Chandler,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Anakelly,
Kool Moe Dee,
a-ha,
Nik Kershaw,
The Slackers,
John Holt,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Sonic Youth,
Y Pants,
The Happenings,
Junior Murvin,
L. Decosne,
The Knickerbockers,
Au Pairs,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Barbara Tucker,
The Black Dice,
Can,
Lightning Bolt,
Don Cherry,
Clear Light, Clear Light, Clear Light, Clear Light.
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.