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 Tuvalu and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1967 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 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 Cheater Slicks to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Kas Product. All the underground hits.
All Echospace tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every De La Soul & Jungle Brothers 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
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 Grandmaster Flash record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ultravox,
Soul II Soul,
Eric B and Rakim,
Accadde A,
Scratch Acid,
Deadbeat,
The Young Rascals,
Suicide,
Drexciya,
Prince Buster,
Kayak,
Urselle,
Eli Mardock,
Swans,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Bob Dylan,
Gong,
Quantec,
Brass Construction,
X-102,
The Pop Group,
Von Mondo,
Ronan,
James White and The Blacks,
Youth Brigade,
48th St. Collective,
The Fortunes,
Sound Behaviour,
Yellowson,
Rotary Connection,
Banda Bassotti,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Human League,
The Modern Lovers,
Byron Stingily,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Reagan Youth,
Pere Ubu,
Don Cherry,
Jimmy McGriff,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Glambeats Corp.,
Crispian St. Peters,
E-Dancer,
Bill Near,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Kas Product,
H. Thieme,
Ralphi Rosario,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Happenings,
Can,
Khruangbin,
Fluxion,
Ice-T,
The Dave Clark Five,
Easy Going,
The Walker Brothers,
Fear,
Skarface,
The Kinks, The Kinks, The Kinks, The Kinks.
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.