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 Gabon and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Iggy Pop to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Sun City Girls. All the underground hits.
All Fad Gadget tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every LL Cool J record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Clear Light record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobbi Humphrey,
Derrick May,
John Lydon,
David Bowie,
Joy Division,
Thompson Twins,
Quadrant,
Rod Modell,
Marvin Gaye,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Vogues,
Kenny Larkin,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Jeru the Damaja,
Eve St. Jones,
Sex Pistols,
Suicide,
Icehouse,
Deakin,
Pylon,
Yusef Lateef,
Black Flag,
Motorama,
Clear Light,
Pantaleimon,
Supertramp,
Rosa Yemen,
Kurtis Blow,
Kool Moe Dee,
LL Cool J,
Bill Wells,
Pere Ubu,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Flamin' Groovies,
Alphaville,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Bluetip,
The Doors,
Gichy Dan,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Toni Rubio,
Mark Hollis,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Wake,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Sound Behaviour,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
the Normal,
Terry Callier,
Johnny Clarke,
Barry Ungar,
Youth Brigade,
Michelle Simonal,
The Toasters,
Anakelly,
Q65,
The Count Five,
Derrick Morgan,
Unwound,
the Slits,
Hoover, Hoover, Hoover, Hoover.
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.