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 Tunisia and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the marimba 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 Junior Murvin to the grime 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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. All the underground hits.
All Derrick May tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Erasure record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Mojo Men,
The Gap Band,
Joyce Sims,
Rufus Thomas,
Dennis Brown,
Kas Product,
Zapp,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Cecil Taylor,
Todd Terry,
Toni Rubio,
Curtis Mayfield,
Lower 48,
Quando Quango,
Qualms,
Inner City,
Country Teasers,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Electric Prunes,
Donny Hathaway,
Siglo XX,
Fat Boys,
Henry Cow,
Sugar Minott,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Blancmange,
The Knickerbockers,
Arthur Verocai,
The Pretty Things,
Boz Scaggs,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Guru Guru,
Barclay James Harvest,
Franke,
Gabor Szabo,
Simply Red,
a-ha,
Zero Boys,
Susan Cadogan,
Marvin Gaye,
Supertramp,
Soft Machine,
Yaz,
Pulsallama,
Brothers Johnson,
Mars,
CMW,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Brick,
DNA,
EPMD,
The Associates,
Gang Gang Dance,
Loose Ends,
Bill Near,
Donald Byrd,
Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage, Camouflage.
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.