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 Grenada and from Manchester.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 synthesizer 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 Scrapy to the techno 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 Walker Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Stereo Dub tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Outsiders record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gladiators record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Das Ding,
Henry Cow,
The Victims,
Charles Mingus,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Barclay James Harvest,
Con Funk Shun,
Television Personalities,
The American Breed,
Bobby Womack,
Iggy Pop,
Girls At Our Best!,
Jawbox,
Graham Central Station,
Joyce Sims,
JFA,
Brand Nubian,
UT,
Rufus Thomas,
Idris Muhammad,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Gregory Isaacs,
D'Angelo,
Alice Coltrane,
Hoover,
Kerri Chandler,
Lindisfarne,
Fat Boys,
Lungfish,
Marc Almond,
Boogie Down Productions,
Don Cherry,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Dead C,
Crispian St. Peters,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Piero Umiliani,
Ronan,
Rakim,
X-Ray Spex,
The Move,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Smiths,
The Buckinghams,
Erasure,
The Black Dice,
Chrome,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Lou Christie,
Alton Ellis,
Rosa Yemen,
The Golliwogs,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Jimmy McGriff,
Desert Stars,
The Saints,
The Red Krayola,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Ice-T,
Sonny Sharrock,
Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith.
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.