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 Equatorial Guinea and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Curtis Mayfield to the punk 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 The Red Krayola. All the underground hits.
All Be Bop Deluxe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Make Up record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 oboe and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Be Bop Deluxe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rosa Yemen,
Joe Smooth,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Delon & Dalcan,
Eli Mardock,
Bill Near,
Aswad,
The Cowsills,
Patti Smith,
The Flesh Eaters,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Slits,
Rapeman,
Nik Kershaw,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Fad Gadget,
Tropical Tobacco,
Jimmy McGriff,
Scan 7,
The Pop Group,
The Divine Comedy,
Toni Rubio,
Dual Sessions,
Youth Brigade,
Alice Coltrane,
Tubeway Army,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Quantec,
Monolake,
the Bar-Kays,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Anthony Braxton,
Ludus,
The Shadows of Knight,
Ornette Coleman,
Idris Muhammad,
Terrestrial Tones,
Gang of Four,
The Moleskins,
The Detroit Cobras,
Bobby Byrd,
The Toasters,
Rufus Thomas,
Judy Mowatt,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Heaven 17,
China Crisis,
Sonny Sharrock,
Dawn Penn,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Rod Modell,
Animal Collective,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Sandy B,
Loose Ends,
Agitation Free,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Doobie Brothers,
Eric Copeland,
Bizarre Inc.,
the Swans, the Swans, the Swans, the Swans.
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.