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 Nigeria and from Stockholm.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 the Soft Cell to the grime 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 Traffic Nightmare. All the underground hits.
All Tommy Roe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Altered Images 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Roy Ayers,
Soft Machine,
CMW,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Brass Construction,
Visage,
Crime,
Kool Moe Dee,
Harmonia,
Alice Coltrane,
Gong,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Harpers Bizarre,
Aloha Tigers,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Todd Rundgren,
JFA,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Beau Brummels,
Deakin,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Velvet Underground,
L. Decosne,
Soft Cell,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Young Marble Giants,
Gang of Four,
John Lydon,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Moody Blues,
Minny Pops,
Public Image Ltd.,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Outsiders,
Television,
Chrome,
John Holt,
Japan,
Joy Division,
Faust,
Bluetip,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Moby Grape,
The Toasters,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Janne Schatter,
Stetsasonic,
Sarah Menescal,
Jacob Miller,
Anthony Braxton,
Electric Prunes,
Matthew Bourne,
KRS-One,
The Names,
Johnny Clarke,
The Angels of Light,
Pantaleimon,
The Golliwogs, The Golliwogs, The Golliwogs, The Golliwogs.
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.