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 Ethiopia and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 Winnipeg and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Jesper Dahlbäck to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 JFA. All the underground hits.
All Ultimate Spinach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Guru Guru record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Shadows of Knight 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?
The Last Poets,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Saints,
Cheater Slicks,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Roxy Music,
Dawn Penn,
Junior Murvin,
The Five Americans,
Stetsasonic,
Piero Umiliani,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Man Parrish,
Danielle Patucci,
Sällskapet,
H. Thieme,
Tropical Tobacco,
Sarah Menescal,
Idris Muhammad,
Steve Hackett,
MC5,
The Standells,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Half Japanese,
The Birthday Party,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Barclay James Harvest,
the Human League,
Flipper,
Delta 5,
Mars,
Derrick May,
Black Sheep,
The United States of America,
Black Bananas,
Don Cherry,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Sight & Sound,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Fluxion,
CMW,
Michelle Simonal,
The Toasters,
Rufus Thomas,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Doobie Brothers,
Smog,
Angry Samoans,
Sound Behaviour,
Yaz,
The American Breed,
The Index,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
These Immortal Souls,
Bobby Womack,
Spoonie Gee,
The Evens,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Vainqueur,
Unwound,
Jawbox,
Rapeman,
Sandy B,
FM Einheit, FM Einheit, FM Einheit, FM Einheit.
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.