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 Vietnam and from Salvador.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the theremin 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 Ludus to the punk 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 Duran Duran. All the underground hits.
All Moebius tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fifty Foot Hose record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sixth Finger record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James White and The Blacks,
The Golliwogs,
Hashim,
Dark Day,
a-ha,
Eric B and Rakim,
Traffic Nightmare,
Wasted Youth,
Soft Machine,
Blancmange,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Young Marble Giants,
June Days,
Sun Ra,
the Fania All-Stars,
Radiopuhelimet,
Amazonics,
Au Pairs,
Dennis Brown,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ponytail,
Jandek,
The Slits,
Sandy B,
Hardrive,
Lindisfarne,
Crooked Eye,
Thee Headcoats,
Gabor Szabo,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Inner City,
Lyres,
Graham Central Station,
The Five Americans,
the Germs,
Subhumans,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Cecil Taylor,
Whodini,
LL Cool J,
Piero Umiliani,
The Martian,
Albert Ayler,
Crispy Ambulance,
Peter & Gordon,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Theoretical Girls,
The Vogues,
Colin Newman,
Swell Maps,
The Count Five,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Smoke,
Drexciya,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Funky Four + One,
Country Teasers,
Lakeside,
Fela Kuti,
Basic Channel, Basic Channel, Basic Channel, Basic Channel.
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.