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 St Kitts & Nevis and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 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 Joe Finger to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 MDC. All the underground hits.
All Organ tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Desert Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a This Heat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Star Department,
Rekid,
Letta Mbulu,
Loose Ends,
Rites of Spring,
Model 500,
Nico,
Oblivians,
David Axelrod,
Yusef Lateef,
Neu!,
Little Man,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Aural Exciters,
MC5,
Fear,
Subhumans,
ABBA,
Intrusion,
Negative Approach,
Colin Newman,
Aloha Tigers,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Outsiders,
Radiohead,
Junior Murvin,
Sarah Menescal,
Skaos,
Ten City,
Hardrive,
Reuben Wilson,
Morten Harket,
Prince Buster,
Mad Mike,
Visage,
Nick Fraelich,
The Durutti Column,
Ohio Players,
Glambeats Corp.,
Eric Copeland,
Max Romeo,
Frankie Knuckles,
Brothers Johnson,
Suicide,
Soul Sonic Force,
Vladislav Delay,
Shuggie Otis,
The Smoke,
Barrington Levy,
Scott Walker,
In Retrospect,
The Golliwogs,
The Happenings,
the Association,
The Buckinghams,
the Soft Cell,
Bob Dylan,
The Gories,
E-Dancer,
The Stooges,
The Angels of Light,
The Seeds,
the Normal, the Normal, the Normal, the Normal.
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.