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 Iraq and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Clear Light to the disco 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 A Certain Ratio. All the underground hits.
All Graham Central Station tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jimmy McGriff 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 a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronnie Foster record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pole,
Basic Channel,
the Human League,
The Music Machine,
The Cowsills,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Blues Magoos,
Mars,
T. Rex,
Maurizio,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
John Coltrane,
Curtis Mayfield,
Stockholm Monsters,
Minor Threat,
Stiv Bators,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Grass Roots,
Lightning Bolt,
Buzzcocks,
Kerrie Biddell,
the Sonics,
Monks,
Flamin' Groovies,
Albert Ayler,
X-Ray Spex,
Gregory Isaacs,
Sixth Finger,
Aural Exciters,
Funky Four + One,
Ituana,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Neu!,
Flipper,
The Mojo Men,
The Velvet Underground,
Nirvana,
Swell Maps,
Fela Kuti,
AZ,
Peter & Gordon,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sister Nancy,
The Motions,
Organ,
Tears for Fears,
Essential Logic,
Graham Central Station,
OOIOO,
The Fortunes,
The Angels of Light,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
China Crisis,
Big Daddy Kane,
Scientists,
Nas,
Joe Finger,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.