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 Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
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 Sonny Sharrock to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Delta 5. All the underground hits.
All Crime tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jeff Mills 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Carl Craig,
Jacob Miller,
The Happenings,
Q65,
Minnie Riperton,
Andrew Hill,
La Düsseldorf,
LL Cool J,
Kool Moe Dee,
Average White Band,
Lightning Bolt,
Groovy Waters,
Chris Corsano,
The Motions,
Swans,
John Holt,
Moss Icon,
JFA,
Guru Guru,
E-Dancer,
Joe Smooth,
10cc,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sonny Sharrock,
Blake Baxter,
Schoolly D,
Skaos,
Fat Boys,
Roy Ayers,
The Residents,
Beasts of Bourbon,
cv313,
Minor Threat,
The Index,
T. Rex,
Scion,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Arcadia,
Quando Quango,
Todd Rundgren,
Popol Vuh,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Nas,
Barclay James Harvest,
Yaz,
MC5,
Country Teasers,
Boz Scaggs,
Todd Terry,
the Swans,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Slackers,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Piero Umiliani,
Camberwell Now,
R.M.O.,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Spoonie Gee,
the Slits,
Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens.
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.