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 Guatemala and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 spring reverb 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 Yusef Lateef to the rock 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 Sun Ra. All the underground hits.
All Prince Buster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soft Cell record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 snare and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gil Scott Heron record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roger Hodgson,
The United States of America,
Freddie Wadling,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Alphaville,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Sound,
Silicon Teens,
Godley & Creme,
Fluxion,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Section 25,
Stiv Bators,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Ponytail,
Shuggie Otis,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Morten Harket,
Frankie Knuckles,
Roy Ayers,
Brick,
Aaron Thompson,
the Association,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Marcia Griffiths,
Lyres,
The Durutti Column,
Kenny Larkin,
U.S. Maple,
Yazoo,
Grandmaster Flash,
Joyce Sims,
Easy Going,
Marc Almond,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Electric Prunes,
The Blues Magoos,
The Evens,
The Slackers,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Derrick Morgan,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Quadrant,
DJ Sneak,
Model 500,
Davy DMX,
Joensuu 1685,
ABBA,
Donald Byrd,
the Slits,
Kool Moe Dee,
Schoolly D,
Maleditus Sound,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu.
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.