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 Namibia and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Madrid.
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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family to the punk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Pretty Things. All the underground hits.
All Glambeats Corp. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Porter Ricks 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 sitar and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zapp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Josef K,
The Cowsills,
Rotary Connection,
Graham Central Station,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Wake,
Chris & Cosey,
Robert Görl,
Neu!,
The Saints,
Nas,
Can,
The Associates,
Stereo Dub,
Soul II Soul,
Ponytail,
Arcadia,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Crash Course in Science,
China Crisis,
Visage,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
the Soft Cell,
The Cure,
Fela Kuti,
Boz Scaggs,
The Monochrome Set,
Monolake,
Flamin' Groovies,
Sexual Harrassment,
Aaron Thompson,
Freddie Wadling,
X-Ray Spex,
Ice-T,
Mandrill,
Nico,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
David Axelrod,
Scan 7,
The Five Americans,
Lakeside,
The Vogues,
Cheater Slicks,
Severed Heads,
Wolf Eyes,
Harmonia,
Bob Dylan,
Procol Harum,
Susan Cadogan,
The Kinks,
Marc Almond,
Little Man,
Massinfluence,
The Grass Roots,
Warren Ellis,
Suicide,
Echospace,
Ten City,
Gong,
Magazine,
Ronan,
The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers.
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.