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 Tajikistan and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the sitar 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 Fat Boys to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Fania All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Scan 7 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kaleidoscope record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 mellotron and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Move record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
This Heat,
Cybotron,
Cheater Slicks,
Delta 5,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Idris Muhammad,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Kurtis Blow,
The Cowsills,
Chris Corsano,
John Foxx,
the Human League,
Tim Buckley,
Lee Hazlewood,
Thee Headcoats,
Skaos,
The Stooges,
Jandek,
Erasure,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Guru Guru,
Blake Baxter,
Nirvana,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Dave Clark Five,
Vladislav Delay,
Aswad,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Durutti Column,
Tom Boy,
Tomorrow,
Man Parrish,
The Alarm Clocks,
Outsiders,
The Mojo Men,
Thompson Twins,
The Count Five,
The Electric Prunes,
Fad Gadget,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Television Personalities,
Prince Buster,
David Axelrod,
Bill Near,
Kenny Larkin,
Robert Hood,
The Misunderstood,
Silicon Teens,
Hashim,
Jesper Dahlback,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Johnny Osbourne,
Eric Copeland,
The Fire Engines,
Bill Wells,
Pylon,
Fluxion,
the Fania All-Stars,
Sound Behaviour,
Alphaville,
Yazoo,
A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio.
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.