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 Guatemala and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Alphaville to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 The Seeds. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Don Cherry record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Massinfluence record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Electric Prunes,
Von Mondo,
Erykah Badu,
The Mighty Diamonds,
the Human League,
Radio Birdman,
Pantytec,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Misunderstood,
Unwound,
KRS-One,
Depeche Mode,
Joyce Sims,
Average White Band,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Johnny Osbourne,
Judy Mowatt,
The Techniques,
Mission of Burma,
Lindisfarne,
Fugazi,
Altered Images,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Gladiators,
Faraquet,
Sarah Menescal,
The Grass Roots,
Royal Trux,
Khruangbin,
Liliput,
Sugar Minott,
The Skatalites,
The Offenders,
Susan Cadogan,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Smoke,
Arab on Radar,
Todd Rundgren,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Shadows of Knight,
Pussy Galore,
Jandek,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Rosa Yemen,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Erasure,
Quadrant,
Accadde A,
Outsiders,
Buzzcocks,
Bobby Womack,
Chrome,
Mary Jane Girls,
Aloha Tigers,
the Bar-Kays,
Althea and Donna,
Tim Buckley,
Fat Boys,
Audionom,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Pagans, Pagans, Pagans, Pagans.
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.