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 Kiribati and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the guitar 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 Pet Shop Boys to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam. All the underground hits.
All Sunsets and Hearts tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sad Lovers and Giants 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobbi Humphrey record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lightning Bolt,
Yusef Lateef,
Fat Boys,
Brand Nubian,
Fatback Band,
Black Pus,
Avey Tare,
The Grass Roots,
Johnny Clarke,
The American Breed,
Maurizio,
Cal Tjader,
Rites of Spring,
Josef K,
The Neon Judgement,
Lakeside,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Clear Light,
Faraquet,
Malaria!,
Easy Going,
X-101,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Hashim,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Grandmaster Flash,
Freddie Wadling,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Juan Atkins,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Lalo Schifrin,
Lou Reed,
Lungfish,
Severed Heads,
X-Ray Spex,
Young Marble Giants,
Graham Central Station,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Oneida,
The Last Poets,
Crispian St. Peters,
Unwound,
The New Christs,
Ultra Naté,
Mantronix,
Alice Coltrane,
Rekid,
Pharoah Sanders,
Los Fastidios,
Sex Pistols,
The Monochrome Set,
Curtis Mayfield,
Motorama,
Japan,
Alison Limerick,
Jerry's Kids,
The Electric Prunes,
Swell Maps,
Rapeman,
Gregory Isaacs,
Quantec,
Country Teasers,
Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division.
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.