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 Cambodia and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the organ 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 Dennis Brown to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Cymande. All the underground hits.
All Vaughan Mason & Crew tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sight & Sound record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pierre Henry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Zeros,
Interpol,
Echospace,
Gang of Four,
Eve St. Jones,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The New Christs,
Drive Like Jehu,
Roxy Music,
Suburban Knight,
The Moleskins,
Harmonia,
Mars,
Pharoah Sanders,
Minny Pops,
Brothers Johnson,
The Offenders,
Thompson Twins,
Porter Ricks,
the Soft Cell,
Aaron Thompson,
Tropical Tobacco,
Grandmaster Flash,
Magazine,
Talk Talk,
Alice Coltrane,
Faust,
This Heat,
Supertramp,
Jerry's Kids,
Rites of Spring,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Eric B and Rakim,
F. McDonald,
Terry Callier,
PIL,
Second Layer,
Marvin Gaye,
Gil Scott Heron,
Jesper Dahlback,
New York Dolls,
Schoolly D,
The Cramps,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Juan Atkins,
Nation of Ulysses,
John Cale,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
the Human League,
The Fuzztones,
China Crisis,
Y Pants,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Happenings,
The Leaves,
Clear Light,
Janne Schatter,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
the Germs, the Germs, the Germs, the Germs.
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.