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 Albania and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Joe Smooth to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Brothers Johnson. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grandmaster Flash 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cymande record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The American Breed,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Pop Group,
DJ Style,
Camouflage,
Ken Boothe,
The J.B.'s,
Delta 5,
Electric Prunes,
In Retrospect,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
John Coltrane,
Scratch Acid,
Fela Kuti,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Half Japanese,
Black Moon,
Byron Stingily,
the Soft Cell,
Marcia Griffiths,
Cybotron,
Moby Grape,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Grass Roots,
Peter and Kerry,
Soulsonic Force,
Aswad,
The Music Machine,
Flipper,
Silicon Teens,
Sonny Sharrock,
Crooked Eye,
F. McDonald,
Idris Muhammad,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Young Marble Giants,
Graham Central Station,
Jacques Brel,
Whodini,
Lungfish,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Con Funk Shun,
Eurythmics,
Gang of Four,
Model 500,
Pole,
Patti Smith,
Ronnie Foster,
Funky Four + One,
Archie Shepp,
Monolake,
Alphaville,
Reuben Wilson,
Banda Bassotti,
JFA,
The Toasters,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Yazoo,
The Skatalites,
Zapp,
the Germs,
Rosa Yemen, Rosa Yemen, Rosa Yemen, Rosa Yemen.
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.