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 Vietnam and from Madrid.
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 Manila and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 oboe 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 Schoolly D to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Blake Baxter. All the underground hits.
All Surgeon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Zeros 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Laurel Aitken record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
E-Dancer,
the Slits,
Freddie Wadling,
Surgeon,
Mad Mike,
the Germs,
The Beau Brummels,
Adolescents,
Eric Dolphy,
Y Pants,
Cluster,
Be Bop Deluxe,
John Lydon,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Brand Nubian,
Terrestrial Tones,
Vainqueur,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Black Dice,
Michelle Simonal,
Cal Tjader,
Minnie Riperton,
The Cowsills,
KRS-One,
Man Parrish,
John Coltrane,
The Doobie Brothers,
Barclay James Harvest,
This Heat,
Soft Cell,
Quadrant,
Pantytec,
The United States of America,
The Smoke,
Depeche Mode,
Scott Walker,
Robert Hood,
Absolute Body Control,
Duran Duran,
Eurythmics,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Sonics,
Fad Gadget,
David Bowie,
Matthew Bourne,
Blancmange,
Colin Newman,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
PIL,
Intrusion,
New York Dolls,
Crash Course in Science,
Sun City Girls,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Wire,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Arthur Verocai,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Derrick Morgan,
The Slits,
Royal Trux,
Fatback Band,
Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims.
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.