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 Laos and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Edmonton.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 the Normal to the crunk 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 Rhythim Is Rhythim. All the underground hits.
All The Gories tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yellowson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 güiro and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Simply Red,
Barbara Tucker,
Janne Schatter,
Japan,
Peter & Gordon,
Gang Starr,
Brick,
The Divine Comedy,
Main Source,
Lou Christie,
Boogie Down Productions,
Basic Channel,
Harpers Bizarre,
Scan 7,
Funkadelic,
Harry Pussy,
Johnny Clarke,
Radio Birdman,
Suicide,
Sun Ra,
Scrapy,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Rakim,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Chrome,
Suburban Knight,
Cecil Taylor,
Mad Mike,
Soulsonic Force,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Thee Headcoats,
Howard Jones,
Robert Wyatt,
Scientists,
Half Japanese,
The Evens,
Pere Ubu,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Scott Walker,
Throbbing Gristle,
Steve Hackett,
Minor Threat,
Rites of Spring,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Sonics,
Brothers Johnson,
Letta Mbulu,
Sonny Sharrock,
Y Pants,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
the Bar-Kays,
In Retrospect,
Mr. Review,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Neon Judgement,
The Happenings,
Symarip,
Lakeside,
Tubeway Army,
Byron Stingily,
Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid.
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.