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 Malta and from Lagos.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the snare 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 Yusef Lateef to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Television Personalities. All the underground hits.
All Mantronix tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grey Daturas record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lou Reed & Metallica record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Associates,
Dark Day,
Stereo Dub,
The Zeros,
Bush Tetras,
Flamin' Groovies,
Al Stewart,
The Cure,
Outsiders,
Piero Umiliani,
Sandy B,
ABC,
Suicide,
The Skatalites,
Bobby Byrd,
Aloha Tigers,
Qualms,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Janne Schatter,
Rosa Yemen,
Todd Terry,
June of 44,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Smog,
Inner City,
Byron Stingily,
Reagan Youth,
The Fortunes,
The Wake,
Amon Düül II,
The Vogues,
Fela Kuti,
The Electric Prunes,
New Age Steppers,
Ohio Players,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Grass Roots,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Pylon,
Grandmaster Flash,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Quadrant,
Minor Threat,
the Bar-Kays,
Trumans Water,
Quantec,
Gil Scott Heron,
Ultra Naté,
Cecil Taylor,
Slave,
Moby Grape,
X-101,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Alison Limerick,
Icehouse,
Technova,
Rod Modell,
Rites of Spring,
Terrestrial Tones,
Deepchord,
China Crisis,
Intrusion, Intrusion, Intrusion, Intrusion.
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.