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 Lesotho and from Stockholm.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Barrington Levy to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Barrington Levy. All the underground hits.
All David Axelrod tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Donny Hathaway record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke 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?
Gastr Del Sol,
The Victims,
Shuggie Otis,
Grauzone,
Ten City,
Freddie Wadling,
Tropical Tobacco,
Marshall Jefferson,
Ossler,
Model 500,
The Durutti Column,
Youth Brigade,
Royal Trux,
Basic Channel,
Country Teasers,
Funky Four + One,
Black Pus,
Connie Case,
Second Layer,
Crispian St. Peters,
Vladislav Delay,
The Smiths,
Glambeats Corp.,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Chrome,
Erykah Badu,
Kerri Chandler,
Mad Mike,
The Fire Engines,
Gong,
the Association,
Pylon,
Marcia Griffiths,
Y Pants,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Ohio Players,
Agent Orange,
Masters at Work,
D'Angelo,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Cowsills,
The American Breed,
Yellowson,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Smoke,
Dual Sessions,
Lungfish,
Harmonia,
Cameo,
Hasil Adkins,
Flipper,
Tears for Fears,
DNA,
Liliput,
Porter Ricks,
John Lydon,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Michelle Simonal,
Gil Scott Heron,
Wire,
Traffic Nightmare,
Newcleus, Newcleus, Newcleus, Newcleus.
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.