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 Mali and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Warsaw to the jazz 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 Standells. All the underground hits.
All Amazonics tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Severed Heads record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 rhodes and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cabaret Voltaire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Gap Band,
Amazonics,
Eric Copeland,
Flamin' Groovies,
Procol Harum,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Tommy Roe,
The Velvet Underground,
Jimmy McGriff,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Fugs,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Pussy Galore,
Sun City Girls,
Brick,
The Wake,
Smog,
Rosa Yemen,
Franke,
Marshall Jefferson,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Electric Prunes,
Faraquet,
The Names,
Ituana,
The Kinks,
Stetsasonic,
Soul Sonic Force,
Rotary Connection,
Marine Girls,
the Human League,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Oneida,
PIL,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Cowsills,
Flash Fearless,
New York Dolls,
Sun Ra,
Trumans Water,
Barbara Tucker,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Fear,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Young Marble Giants,
Ossler,
Graham Central Station,
Arcadia,
The Young Rascals,
Make Up,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Toasters,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Gladiators,
Spoonie Gee,
Boz Scaggs,
ABBA,
John Holt,
Schoolly D,
Arab on Radar,
Crime, Crime, Crime, Crime.
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.