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 Tonga and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 arpeggiator 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 Simply Red to the electroclash 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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud. All the underground hits.
All The Chocolate Watch Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Hood record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Five Americans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dark Day,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Don Cherry,
Delta 5,
Yaz,
Electric Prunes,
Groovy Waters,
John Cale,
Talk Talk,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
a-ha,
Matthew Bourne,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Cabaret Voltaire,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Symarip,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Masters at Work,
Bronski Beat,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Kerrie Biddell,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Severed Heads,
Lyres,
The Zeros,
The Skatalites,
The United States of America,
Adolescents,
Sight & Sound,
Organ,
Fela Kuti,
Television,
Althea and Donna,
Rufus Thomas,
In Retrospect,
The Offenders,
Eric B and Rakim,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Flipper,
Johnny Clarke,
The Shadows of Knight,
Sam Rivers,
The Fugs,
Derrick May,
Tom Boy,
Black Moon,
Zapp,
Suicide,
Suburban Knight,
the Germs,
Eve St. Jones,
The Fuzztones,
Moebius,
Stetsasonic,
Soul II Soul,
Joe Finger,
The Last Poets,
Can,
The Smiths,
Amon Düül,
the Slits,
Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive, Hardrive.
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.