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 Angola and from Philadelphia.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Bremen.
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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
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 The Mighty Diamonds to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Black Flag. All the underground hits.
All Scan 7 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Neon Judgement record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 a rhodes and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rhythm & Sound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a harpsichord.
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,
Television Personalities,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Busters,
The Beau Brummels,
Pole,
Chris & Cosey,
DJ Sneak,
The Skatalites,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Khruangbin,
Con Funk Shun,
Lou Christie,
Saccharine Trust,
X-Ray Spex,
The Fugs,
Swans,
Scan 7,
Groovy Waters,
Donny Hathaway,
Kaleidoscope,
LL Cool J,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Monks,
the Bar-Kays,
Todd Rundgren,
Joensuu 1685,
Eden Ahbez,
China Crisis,
Excepter,
Curtis Mayfield,
Lower 48,
Dead Boys,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Johnny Clarke,
Scientists,
Depeche Mode,
Sonny Sharrock,
the Slits,
Cymande,
The Alarm Clocks,
Kayak,
Skaos,
The Fall,
Roy Ayers,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Johnny Osbourne,
Nation of Ulysses,
Black Flag,
The Music Machine,
The Evens,
Y Pants,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Pere Ubu,
Black Bananas,
Flipper,
The Slackers,
Wasted Youth,
Lou Reed,
Shoche,
Ossler,
Roger Hodgson,
John Cale, John Cale, John Cale, John Cale.
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.