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 Uzbekistan and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Absolute Body Control. All the underground hits.
All Fela Kuti tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suburban Knight 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Vaughan Mason & Crew record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
ABBA,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Youth Brigade,
Brick,
Scientists,
Josef K,
Yazoo,
Nas,
Funky Four + One,
Excepter,
Infiniti,
The Fall,
Sex Pistols,
Rosa Yemen,
Rakim,
Desert Stars,
The Music Machine,
The Tremeloes,
Mission of Burma,
Magazine,
Pulsallama,
Quantec,
Pagans,
Amon Düül II,
Dual Sessions,
Lungfish,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Kurtis Blow,
Television,
Mars,
Matthew Halsall,
Deadbeat,
Eden Ahbez,
Thee Headcoats,
Pantaleimon,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sparks,
Can,
The Real Kids,
Slave,
Spoonie Gee,
The Motions,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Shadows of Knight,
Crash Course in Science,
Todd Rundgren,
Idris Muhammad,
John Foxx,
Joe Smooth,
Sonic Youth,
Arcadia,
Juan Atkins,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Pole,
Man Eating Sloth,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Fela Kuti,
R.M.O.,
Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin.
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.