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 Palau and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Peter & Gordon to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Aloha Tigers. All the underground hits.
All Agent Orange tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Eating Sloth 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Osbourne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Graham Central Station,
Kenny Larkin,
The Pop Group,
Gong,
This Heat,
Mars,
Depeche Mode,
Archie Shepp,
Todd Terry,
Bronski Beat,
Crime,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
a-ha,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Offenders,
The Raincoats,
the Normal,
The Fortunes,
Rod Modell,
Dawn Penn,
Ornette Coleman,
Alton Ellis,
Jeru the Damaja,
Jerry's Kids,
Niagra,
Can,
Cheater Slicks,
Camberwell Now,
Chrome,
The Mojo Men,
The Associates,
Nas,
Scrapy,
Rotary Connection,
Schoolly D,
Funkadelic,
the Human League,
Marvin Gaye,
Colin Newman,
Magazine,
Max Romeo,
Sparks,
UT,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Martian,
Nation of Ulysses,
Pole,
Electric Prunes,
The Happenings,
Cymande,
Faraquet,
Black Moon,
T. Rex,
Guru Guru,
Crispy Ambulance,
A Certain Ratio,
Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana.
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.