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 Sri Lanka and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Jeru the Damaja to the rap 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 Interpol. All the underground hits.
All Fad Gadget tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lizzy Mercier Descloux record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Basic Channel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Albert Ayler,
A Certain Ratio,
Don Cherry,
The Gladiators,
Porter Ricks,
Tom Boy,
The Offenders,
Fela Kuti,
Vainqueur,
Kaleidoscope,
The Cramps,
X-Ray Spex,
Rites of Spring,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Excepter,
LL Cool J,
Piero Umiliani,
Aswad,
Dorothy Ashby,
Warren Ellis,
Alice Coltrane,
The Doobie Brothers,
Flash Fearless,
Donny Hathaway,
Brass Construction,
Eve St. Jones,
Graham Central Station,
Fear,
R.M.O.,
The Names,
Ronnie Foster,
Alphaville,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Yusef Lateef,
Marshall Jefferson,
Brand Nubian,
Amazonics,
Q65,
Lou Christie,
The Fortunes,
Bizarre Inc.,
ABC,
Crispy Ambulance,
Eden Ahbez,
Young Marble Giants,
Smog,
Gil Scott Heron,
Prince Buster,
Kerrie Biddell,
Bootsy Collins,
The Gories,
Terry Callier,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Fat Boys,
Camberwell Now,
Panda Bear,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Banda Bassotti,
Harpers Bizarre,
Blossom Toes,
John Holt,
In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect.
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.