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 Vanuatu and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Winnipeg.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Second Layer to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Gregory Isaacs. All the underground hits.
All Q and Not U tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mantronix 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Human League record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Electric Prunes,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
the Fania All-Stars,
Blossom Toes,
The Pop Group,
Matthew Bourne,
Kool Moe Dee,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Prince Buster,
Derrick May,
Sight & Sound,
F. McDonald,
ABC,
Radiohead,
Jesper Dahlback,
Country Teasers,
Mary Jane Girls,
Quando Quango,
Radiopuhelimet,
Sandy B,
Ken Boothe,
Albert Ayler,
Glenn Branca,
Rotary Connection,
Quadrant,
Man Eating Sloth,
EPMD,
Sparks,
Todd Rundgren,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Guru Guru,
Charles Mingus,
Babytalk,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Monochrome Set,
Terry Callier,
Kurtis Blow,
Howard Jones,
Derrick Morgan,
Todd Terry,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Moody Blues,
Lightning Bolt,
Inner City,
June Days,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Jeru the Damaja,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Darondo,
Donny Hathaway,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Durutti Column,
The Dead C,
Saccharine Trust,
Grandmaster Flash,
Maleditus Sound,
Can,
Johnny Clarke,
Magazine,
The Index,
The Monks,
Skaos, Skaos, Skaos, Skaos.
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.