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 South Sudan and from Manchester.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Minor Threat to the rap 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 Neil Young & Crazy Horse. All the underground hits.
All Red Lorry Yellow Lorry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Newcleus record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Organ record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sonny Sharrock,
Zapp,
Boogie Down Productions,
Charles Mingus,
K-Klass,
The Kinks,
Moss Icon,
The Grass Roots,
Excepter,
Amon Düül II,
Kerri Chandler,
Can,
Zero Boys,
Cal Tjader,
Intrusion,
Suicide,
The Dead C,
Procol Harum,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Half Japanese,
Aaron Thompson,
Wally Richardson,
Glambeats Corp.,
E-Dancer,
Joensuu 1685,
Chris Corsano,
Sight & Sound,
Bobby Byrd,
Roy Ayers,
The Tremeloes,
Pulsallama,
Magma,
The Moleskins,
The Knickerbockers,
Anthony Braxton,
Mantronix,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Minny Pops,
Morten Harket,
The Skatalites,
Leonard Cohen,
Nick Fraelich,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Sixth Finger,
The Seeds,
Brand Nubian,
H. Thieme,
Duran Duran,
the Germs,
The Modern Lovers,
Marine Girls,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Rotary Connection,
MC5,
John Holt,
Supertramp,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Thee Headcoats,
Pantaleimon,
Aswad,
Alton Ellis,
The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs.
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.