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 Norway and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Average White Band to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Peter & Gordon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jeff Lynne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Arab on Radar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Circle Jerks,
Bizarre Inc.,
New Age Steppers,
The Sound,
Ludus,
Niagra,
The Birthday Party,
Boredoms,
10cc,
Pantytec,
Tubeway Army,
Don Cherry,
Matthew Halsall,
London Community Gospel Choir,
the Slits,
Oneida,
The Cowsills,
Dennis Brown,
Letta Mbulu,
Soul Sonic Force,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Skarface,
Grauzone,
The Cramps,
Jerry's Kids,
Brothers Johnson,
Depeche Mode,
Spoonie Gee,
The Happenings,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Man Eating Sloth,
Flamin' Groovies,
La Düsseldorf,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Marc Almond,
Minor Threat,
Funky Four + One,
Clear Light,
John Holt,
Nick Fraelich,
Wally Richardson,
Lee Hazlewood,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Zero Boys,
Electric Light Orchestra,
AZ,
The Alarm Clocks,
Television Personalities,
Carl Craig,
Black Flag,
CMW,
the Sonics,
Urselle,
Nation of Ulysses,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Aaron Thompson,
the Association,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Marshall Jefferson,
Swell Maps,
The Smiths,
Visage, Visage, Visage, Visage.
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.