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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 arpeggiator 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 Wolf Eyes to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Isaac Hayes. All the underground hits.
All The Durutti Column tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roxy Music record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Pole,
ABBA,
Ultravox,
Barclay James Harvest,
Duran Duran,
The Music Machine,
Saccharine Trust,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Eddi Front,
Q65,
Stiv Bators,
Kayak,
Rapeman,
The Real Kids,
Hashim,
Hoover,
Outsiders,
Basic Channel,
Girls At Our Best!,
Shuggie Otis,
Kas Product,
Peter & Gordon,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Underground Resistance,
The Martian,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Marshall Jefferson,
Tommy Roe,
Pylon,
Scion,
Oblivians,
K-Klass,
The Happenings,
Sixth Finger,
Sun Ra,
Eli Mardock,
The Dead C,
Gang Green,
Suicide,
Carl Craig,
The Mojo Men,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Average White Band,
OOIOO,
Silicon Teens,
The American Breed,
Metal Thangz,
Isaac Hayes,
Fat Boys,
Alice Coltrane,
EPMD,
Masters at Work,
Parry Music,
Marmalade,
Delta 5,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Scrapy,
Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke.
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.