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 Mozambique and from New York.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Radiopuhelimet to the grime 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 E-Dancer. All the underground hits.
All The Durutti Column tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Harpers Bizarre record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a T. Rex record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Standells,
Rotary Connection,
Whodini,
Skarface,
Sugar Minott,
the Slits,
The Moleskins,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Real Kids,
Jeff Mills,
Barbara Tucker,
Grauzone,
In Retrospect,
Wire,
The Offenders,
Delta 5,
Organ,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Von Mondo,
Jandek,
Johnny Osbourne,
Pole,
The Velvet Underground,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Music Machine,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Cramps,
Niagra,
Stereo Dub,
Freddie Wadling,
Erasure,
Harmonia,
Basic Channel,
AZ,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Swell Maps,
The Durutti Column,
Charles Mingus,
Ten City,
Hardrive,
DJ Style,
Sun City Girls,
Ituana,
The Alarm Clocks,
Andrew Hill,
The Busters,
Hoover,
Siglo XX,
Skaos,
The J.B.'s,
X-Ray Spex,
Infiniti,
James White and The Blacks,
Funkadelic,
The Grass Roots,
Archie Shepp,
Soft Machine,
Bang On A Can,
Guru Guru,
Harry Pussy,
The Divine Comedy,
Althea and Donna,
Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu, Erykah Badu.
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.