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 Monaco and from Hong Kong.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Pole to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Mission of Burma. All the underground hits.
All Sad Lovers and Giants tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tropical Tobacco 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Archie Shepp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ronnie Foster,
Isaac Hayes,
The Fortunes,
ABBA,
Ponytail,
The Neon Judgement,
Brand Nubian,
the Normal,
Amazonics,
Todd Rundgren,
MC5,
The New Christs,
Cecil Taylor,
Theoretical Girls,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Sister Nancy,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Little Man,
Michelle Simonal,
The Detroit Cobras,
Althea and Donna,
Bootsy Collins,
Barclay James Harvest,
Jandek,
Amon Düül,
Lou Christie,
EPMD,
Wasted Youth,
Fatback Band,
The Count Five,
Marshall Jefferson,
Idris Muhammad,
The Pretty Things,
Gong,
Gregory Isaacs,
Barry Ungar,
Adolescents,
Eden Ahbez,
Andrew Hill,
Sound Behaviour,
Delon & Dalcan,
Sonny Sharrock,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Alton Ellis,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Saccharine Trust,
Juan Atkins,
Sparks,
Accadde A,
The Names,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The American Breed,
OOIOO,
Grey Daturas,
Brick,
Delta 5,
Magazine,
Yusef Lateef,
The Velvet Underground,
Dorothy Ashby,
Nick Fraelich,
Robert Hood,
Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia.
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.