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 Ivory Coast and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 güiro 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 Average White Band to the rap 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 Connie Case. All the underground hits.
All Duran Duran tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Human League record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Max Romeo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slits,
Kenny Larkin,
The Pretty Things,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Barrington Levy,
Sound Behaviour,
The Invisible,
Stiv Bators,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Scott Walker,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The Saints,
Country Teasers,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Minor Threat,
Minny Pops,
the Sonics,
Albert Ayler,
The Selecter,
Bush Tetras,
Essential Logic,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Infiniti,
Ronnie Foster,
Livin' Joy,
Dorothy Ashby,
Davy DMX,
X-102,
Can,
Scan 7,
Section 25,
Clear Light,
Funky Four + One,
Warren Ellis,
Groovy Waters,
Bill Near,
Throbbing Gristle,
Television,
Chris Corsano,
MC5,
Eden Ahbez,
Grauzone,
Duran Duran,
The Residents,
New Order,
Piero Umiliani,
DNA,
The Blackbyrds,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Kerrie Biddell,
Animal Collective,
Ken Boothe,
The Human League,
The J.B.'s,
Crispy Ambulance,
Bootsy Collins,
Lou Christie,
The Gun Club,
Massinfluence,
Crispian St. Peters,
Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy.
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.