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 Morocco and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Scrapy to the dance 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 the Human League. All the underground hits.
All JFA tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Average White Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lonnie Liston Smith record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Panda Bear,
ABBA,
Easy Going,
Tim Buckley,
Y Pants,
Stereo Dub,
Babytalk,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Wake,
Swans,
Funkadelic,
Peter & Gordon,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Brand Nubian,
Bush Tetras,
Ten City,
PIL,
the Soft Cell,
Procol Harum,
Bizarre Inc.,
Boogie Down Productions,
Soft Cell,
Aswad,
Royal Trux,
Altered Images,
The Smoke,
Brick,
Jerry's Kids,
Zero Boys,
Severed Heads,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Hasil Adkins,
Suicide,
La Düsseldorf,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Pole,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sarah Menescal,
Piero Umiliani,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Skaos,
The Gun Club,
Rapeman,
Monks,
Jawbox,
Kayak,
Fela Kuti,
David Bowie,
Smog,
The Standells,
Stetsasonic,
Harmonia,
Black Pus,
Rekid,
Nas,
The Pop Group,
The J.B.'s,
Second Layer,
Delon & Dalcan,
ABC,
Erykah Badu,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Warren Ellis,
Idris Muhammad,
Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn, Dawn Penn.
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.