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 Barbados and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Easy Going to the crunk 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 Bronski Beat. All the underground hits.
All Pierre Henry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Amon Düül 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Slave,
Gang Gang Dance,
Swell Maps,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Tropical Tobacco,
Scott Walker,
Fat Boys,
Moebius,
Robert Wyatt,
Ronnie Foster,
Al Stewart,
The Invisible,
Fad Gadget,
The Modern Lovers,
Jerry's Kids,
Joey Negro,
EPMD,
The Real Kids,
The Detroit Cobras,
Lucky Dragons,
Peter & Gordon,
Eric B and Rakim,
Chrome,
Lindisfarne,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Youth Brigade,
Surgeon,
CMW,
The Moleskins,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Scientists,
The J.B.'s,
Nik Kershaw,
Blossom Toes,
Shuggie Otis,
Alice Coltrane,
The Misunderstood,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Absolute Body Control,
Oneida,
Dawn Penn,
the Germs,
Terrestrial Tones,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Angels of Light,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Black Pus,
Bill Near,
Sarah Menescal,
Pole,
Funkadelic,
The Count Five,
Siglo XX,
MC5,
Guru Guru,
Deakin,
The Moody Blues,
Roy Ayers,
Dennis Brown,
Godley & Creme,
New York Dolls, New York Dolls, New York Dolls, New York Dolls.
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.