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 Solomon Islands and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Ornette Coleman to the rap 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 Loose Ends. All the underground hits.
All The Alarm Clocks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Dirtbombs 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Second Layer,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Swell Maps,
Juan Atkins,
Aloha Tigers,
Essential Logic,
Thompson Twins,
Scratch Acid,
The Fortunes,
Wings,
Smog,
Lee Hazlewood,
Chris Corsano,
The Young Rascals,
Whodini,
FM Einheit,
Roxy Music,
Minutemen,
Dual Sessions,
LL Cool J,
Arab on Radar,
Cameo,
Crime,
Public Image Ltd.,
DNA,
Clear Light,
Mary Jane Girls,
Throbbing Gristle,
Groovy Waters,
Soft Machine,
Bobby Sherman,
Cecil Taylor,
The Electric Prunes,
Harpers Bizarre,
Nation of Ulysses,
Kevin Saunderson,
Arthur Verocai,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Oneida,
Todd Rundgren,
Metal Thangz,
Marc Almond,
Loose Ends,
Skaos,
Basic Channel,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Girls At Our Best!,
Jacob Miller,
Darondo,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Idris Muhammad,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Crooked Eye,
the Bar-Kays,
Quantec,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Patti Smith,
Bang On A Can,
Saccharine Trust,
Zero Boys,
Excepter,
Sparks, Sparks, Sparks, Sparks.
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.