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 Liberia and from Bologna.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft to the funk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Stiv Bators. All the underground hits.
All Gong tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Skatalites record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 marimba and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dorothy Ashby,
Von Mondo,
Johnny Osbourne,
Nick Fraelich,
The New Christs,
Andrew Hill,
Fifty Foot Hose,
X-102,
D'Angelo,
Don Cherry,
Underground Resistance,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
the Soft Cell,
Kerrie Biddell,
Motorama,
Cheater Slicks,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
the Normal,
The Gun Club,
Wasted Youth,
Minny Pops,
Bluetip,
Harpers Bizarre,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Eurythmics,
Marshall Jefferson,
Excepter,
Chris & Cosey,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Desert Stars,
Monks,
Groovy Waters,
Peter & Gordon,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Roxette,
Drexciya,
Bauhaus,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Youth Brigade,
Mary Jane Girls,
Brass Construction,
Gang Green,
Bootsy Collins,
The Seeds,
Vladislav Delay,
Archie Shepp,
MDC,
Rakim,
the Swans,
Lalo Schifrin,
Aural Exciters,
KRS-One,
Jesper Dahlback,
Lindisfarne,
Amazonics,
The Divine Comedy,
The Gories,
Make Up,
Barclay James Harvest,
Brick,
Model 500,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Surgeon, Surgeon, Surgeon, Surgeon.
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.