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 Norway and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Curtis Mayfield to the dance kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Hardrive. All the underground hits.
All Idris Muhammad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bad Manners record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 harpsichord and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a F. McDonald record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Deepchord,
Gong,
Grauzone,
Stetsasonic,
The Monks,
Anakelly,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Last Poets,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Eric Dolphy,
Janne Schatter,
Jerry Gold Smith,
MDC,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Blake Baxter,
Skriet,
Barclay James Harvest,
Surgeon,
John Coltrane,
Animal Collective,
A Certain Ratio,
Quando Quango,
Rufus Thomas,
Tommy Roe,
Faraquet,
Kerri Chandler,
Bootsy Collins,
New Order,
Fluxion,
La Düsseldorf,
Jandek,
Fatback Band,
Hashim,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Andrew Hill,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Marine Girls,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Main Source,
The Grass Roots,
Pantytec,
Warren Ellis,
Electric Prunes,
Kas Product,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Smog,
Todd Terry,
Chris Corsano,
Buzzcocks,
Accadde A,
The Trojans,
Funky Four + One,
Theoretical Girls,
Brass Construction,
The Evens,
Masters at Work,
Subhumans,
Sparks,
Chrome,
Mr. Review,
FM Einheit,
Faust, Faust, Faust, Faust.
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.