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 Libya and from Cairo.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud to the disco 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 Young Marble Giants. All the underground hits.
All Sound Behaviour tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soul Sonic Force record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Heaven 17 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Near,
The Slits,
The Invisible,
Jandek,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Lungfish,
Lindisfarne,
Pharoah Sanders,
Man Parrish,
Unrelated Segments,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Quantec,
Essential Logic,
Sam Rivers,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Schoolly D,
Whodini,
Yusef Lateef,
One Last Wish,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Associates,
The Standells,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Y Pants,
New Age Steppers,
The Blues Magoos,
John Foxx,
Excepter,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Scientists,
Cecil Taylor,
Sarah Menescal,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Smoke,
Reuben Wilson,
Smog,
The Velvet Underground,
Tears for Fears,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Patti Smith,
Severed Heads,
Skriet,
Lou Christie,
Grey Daturas,
PIL,
Colin Newman,
Bobby Womack,
Eden Ahbez,
Junior Murvin,
Kerri Chandler,
Pet Shop Boys,
Massinfluence,
K-Klass,
Bush Tetras,
Urselle,
Avey Tare,
Marcia Griffiths,
Peter and Kerry,
Banda Bassotti,
Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian.
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.