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 Ethiopia and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron 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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Jeru the Damaja to the rock 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 Spandau Ballet. All the underground hits.
All The Fugs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arab on Radar 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funkadelic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Letta Mbulu,
Cecil Taylor,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Thompson Twins,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Ultravox,
Tomorrow,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Matthew Bourne,
Matthew Halsall,
Sparks,
Adolescents,
ABC,
The Golliwogs,
James White and The Blacks,
Ten City,
Joensuu 1685,
Tubeway Army,
The United States of America,
Smog,
New Age Steppers,
Ronnie Foster,
Lyres,
JFA,
the Human League,
Judy Mowatt,
Cameo,
Jacques Brel,
The Associates,
the Slits,
Throbbing Gristle,
David Axelrod,
Con Funk Shun,
Moebius,
Sixth Finger,
Maleditus Sound,
Banda Bassotti,
Barbara Tucker,
Mad Mike,
Chrome,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Stooges,
The Barracudas,
Shoche,
Kerri Chandler,
The Sonics,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Easy Going,
The Blues Magoos,
The Toasters,
Man Eating Sloth,
Pulsallama,
Wire,
Roxette,
R.M.O.,
B.T. Express,
James Chance & The Contortions,
John Cale,
PIL,
Al Stewart,
Arcadia,
Ossler,
Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes.
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.