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 Croatia and from Calgary.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Tehran.
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 arpeggiator 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 Ajijia Myrayebe to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Swell Maps. All the underground hits.
All Animal Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Evens 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 808 and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blackbyrds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eli Mardock,
Television,
Joyce Sims,
Moebius,
Second Layer,
Bobby Womack,
June Days,
Rites of Spring,
the Swans,
Funkadelic,
Stiv Bators,
The Happenings,
The Music Machine,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Black Dice,
The Cramps,
Magma,
The Star Department,
Smog,
T.S.O.L.,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Mo-Dettes,
Goldenarms,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Doobie Brothers,
Alton Ellis,
Massinfluence,
Young Marble Giants,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Fortunes,
The Smiths,
Banda Bassotti,
Idris Muhammad,
Kaleidoscope,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Max Romeo,
Scrapy,
Soft Cell,
Crash Course in Science,
Leonard Cohen,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Barracudas,
Dawn Penn,
The Velvet Underground,
Bobby Sherman,
Robert Wyatt,
Circle Jerks,
Erasure,
The Fuzztones,
Isaac Hayes,
The Grass Roots,
Qualms,
Cymande,
Unwound,
Panda Bear,
Slick Rick,
Josef K,
Duran Duran,
Nas,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Agent Orange,
Mark Hollis,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana.
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.