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 Madagascar and from Sao Paulo.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 the Normal to the dance kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Can. All the underground hits.
All Sound Behaviour tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Outsiders record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Depeche Mode,
Essential Logic,
Cameo,
Grauzone,
Silicon Teens,
June Days,
The Selecter,
Glenn Branca,
Bronski Beat,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
the Association,
Pussy Galore,
Eden Ahbez,
the Bar-Kays,
Pole,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
a-ha,
Los Fastidios,
The Cramps,
Desert Stars,
Little Man,
Accadde A,
Arab on Radar,
Thompson Twins,
Mandrill,
Eddi Front,
Girls At Our Best!,
Ken Boothe,
Stiv Bators,
Brothers Johnson,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Mission of Burma,
Peter and Kerry,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Terry Callier,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Standells,
Grandmaster Flash,
Hardrive,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Toni Rubio,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Echospace,
Television Personalities,
Pharoah Sanders,
X-102,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Beau Brummels,
Oneida,
Unrelated Segments,
Faraquet,
Anthony Braxton,
The Zeros,
Dave Gahan,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Swell Maps,
The Doobie Brothers,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Goldenarms,
Index,
Malaria!,
Matthew Halsall,
The Slits, The Slits, The Slits, The Slits.
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.