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 Congo and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Shanghai.
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 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 the Bar-Kays to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Sex Pistols tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suicide 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dennis Brown record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe 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?
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ultravox,
China Crisis,
Basic Channel,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
The Gap Band,
Unrelated Segments,
Grey Daturas,
Pantytec,
Leonard Cohen,
Supertramp,
Pierre Henry,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
48th St. Collective,
Hasil Adkins,
Thee Headcoats,
June of 44,
Gang Starr,
Neu!,
Mission of Burma,
Monks,
Drive Like Jehu,
Magazine,
The Grass Roots,
New Age Steppers,
Desert Stars,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Visage,
Fat Boys,
Wally Richardson,
Young Marble Giants,
The Smiths,
Boredoms,
Gil Scott Heron,
Soulsonic Force,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Bad Manners,
Steve Hackett,
Sarah Menescal,
Mo-Dettes,
Second Layer,
Nik Kershaw,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Gong,
Depeche Mode,
In Retrospect,
Bill Wells,
Neil Young,
the Human League,
Roxette,
Brick,
Sonny Sharrock,
Crash Course in Science,
The Real Kids,
Hoover,
Excepter, Excepter, Excepter, Excepter.
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.