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 Bangladesh and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Lille.
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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Ultra Naté to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Oblivians. All the underground hits.
All Theoretical Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Warsaw 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a snare 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 harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Girls At Our Best!,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Siglo XX,
Scion,
Barbara Tucker,
Japan,
Rites of Spring,
Zapp,
John Holt,
B.T. Express,
New Order,
Banda Bassotti,
Bootsy Collins,
Gregory Isaacs,
Young Marble Giants,
The Happenings,
The Cure,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Raincoats,
Leonard Cohen,
Stereo Dub,
the Association,
Nation of Ulysses,
Nico,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Bang On A Can,
The Slackers,
New York Dolls,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Eurythmics,
Brothers Johnson,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Circle Jerks,
Echospace,
Funkadelic,
D'Angelo,
Cecil Taylor,
Crooked Eye,
The Smoke,
Crime,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Sun Ra,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
JFA,
Sugar Minott,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Simply Red,
Gang Starr,
Dorothy Ashby,
Make Up,
Scratch Acid,
Monolake,
Mad Mike,
Alison Limerick,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
La Düsseldorf,
Joy Division,
The American Breed,
Tim Buckley,
Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus.
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.