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 Russia and from Lille.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks to the jazz 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 The Dave Clark Five. All the underground hits.
All Boredoms tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Manfred Mann's Earth Band 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fatback Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Mighty Diamonds,
A Certain Ratio,
Radio Birdman,
Pulsallama,
Bronski Beat,
Flash Fearless,
R.M.O.,
Banda Bassotti,
Barclay James Harvest,
Harmonia,
The Barracudas,
The Techniques,
Youth Brigade,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Leonard Cohen,
The Gun Club,
Parry Music,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Shoche,
Jeff Mills,
Stereo Dub,
Arcadia,
The Sound,
Camberwell Now,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Golliwogs,
Fatback Band,
Tom Boy,
Aswad,
the Slits,
The Fuzztones,
David Bowie,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Faust,
Erykah Badu,
The Real Kids,
Gil Scott Heron,
Ossler,
The Beau Brummels,
Minutemen,
U.S. Maple,
Minny Pops,
Iggy Pop,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Brass Construction,
The Flesh Eaters,
Hardrive,
Grey Daturas,
Shuggie Otis,
Wasted Youth,
Stockholm Monsters,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Franke,
Alphaville,
Bill Near,
Isaac Hayes,
DNA,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Average White Band,
Lyres,
Flipper,
Rapeman,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Urselle, Urselle, Urselle, Urselle.
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.