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 Malawi and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Bluetip to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Gichy Dan. All the underground hits.
All Johnny Clarke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Wasted Youth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echo & the Bunnymen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Piero Umiliani,
Neu!,
Cecil Taylor,
Little Man,
Quadrant,
Gregory Isaacs,
Josef K,
Toni Rubio,
T.S.O.L.,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Count Five,
The Pretty Things,
Lungfish,
Hashim,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Neil Young,
Black Sheep,
Banda Bassotti,
Soulsonic Force,
The Blackbyrds,
Ornette Coleman,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Minnie Riperton,
Nas,
Sun City Girls,
The Beau Brummels,
Angry Samoans,
Matthew Bourne,
Mandrill,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Monks,
Johnny Clarke,
The Doors,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Kinks,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Skarface,
Eric Copeland,
Robert Hood,
Anthony Braxton,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Blancmange,
Rites of Spring,
Smog,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Alton Ellis,
Rosa Yemen,
The Searchers,
Pagans,
Talk Talk,
The Happenings,
Rakim,
T. Rex,
FM Einheit,
Nation of Ulysses,
Youth Brigade,
Joe Finger,
Moss Icon,
Dead Boys,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Newcleus, Newcleus, Newcleus, Newcleus.
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.