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 Uganda and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 Woodstock and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Saints to the grime kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Knickerbockers. All the underground hits.
All Au Pairs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Drexciya record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Names record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Blues Magoos,
Harmonia,
Clear Light,
Radiopuhelimet,
Hardrive,
Henry Cow,
Lightning Bolt,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Guru Guru,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Bizarre Inc.,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Wake,
Gil Scott Heron,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
New York Dolls,
The Flesh Eaters,
Easy Going,
Rotary Connection,
Skaos,
The Smoke,
Drive Like Jehu,
Massinfluence,
The Birthday Party,
Anthony Braxton,
James White and The Blacks,
Bauhaus,
Nik Kershaw,
Ultra Naté,
The Moody Blues,
The Last Poets,
E-Dancer,
Make Up,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Rakim,
Mark Hollis,
Brothers Johnson,
The Litter,
Inner City,
the Swans,
Glambeats Corp.,
Lalann,
Thompson Twins,
The Fire Engines,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Cure,
Oblivians,
Erasure,
The Fortunes,
The Names,
Slave,
Grey Daturas,
Avey Tare,
Susan Cadogan,
Yellowson,
Stockholm Monsters,
Flipper, Flipper, Flipper, Flipper.
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.