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 Niger and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Camberwell Now to the jazz 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 Marshall Jefferson. All the underground hits.
All Crooked Eye tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Sherman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 guitar and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Velvet Underground record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Skaos,
Bobby Womack,
Marmalade,
The Moody Blues,
Chris & Cosey,
D'Angelo,
Joe Finger,
Kaleidoscope,
Delta 5,
Stetsasonic,
Toni Rubio,
Gabor Szabo,
Aaron Thompson,
Traffic Nightmare,
Carl Craig,
The Trojans,
Dorothy Ashby,
Lou Christie,
Gong,
Funky Four + One,
the Swans,
Althea and Donna,
Barbara Tucker,
Gil Scott Heron,
Mars,
The Durutti Column,
The Remains,
Gerry Rafferty,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Unwound,
Terrestrial Tones,
Jandek,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Rotary Connection,
The Young Rascals,
Frankie Knuckles,
Mantronix,
the Human League,
cv313,
The Tremeloes,
The Wake,
Adolescents,
Supertramp,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Dead Boys,
The Misunderstood,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Seeds,
Yaz,
Aswad,
Cecil Taylor,
Con Funk Shun,
a-ha,
Matthew Halsall,
The Associates,
Judy Mowatt,
The Gories,
Lindisfarne,
Scion,
Cameo,
Nirvana,
Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville.
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.