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 East Timor and from Tehran.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Stockholm.
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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
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 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks to the jazz 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 Peter & Gordon. All the underground hits.
All Yusef Lateef tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every PIL 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a linndrum 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 a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Peter & Gordon,
Spoonie Gee,
Spandau Ballet,
Pagans,
Andrew Hill,
Skarface,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
EPMD,
Harmonia,
Johnny Osbourne,
Depeche Mode,
Organ,
The Grass Roots,
Brothers Johnson,
Anthony Braxton,
Moss Icon,
AZ,
The United States of America,
Easy Going,
Shuggie Otis,
Sandy B,
The Trojans,
Blake Baxter,
The Dead C,
Johnny Clarke,
Talk Talk,
Soulsonic Force,
The Slits,
Camouflage,
The Moleskins,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
In Retrospect,
John Holt,
The Fire Engines,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Leaves,
Aloha Tigers,
Piero Umiliani,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Flesh Eaters,
Stiv Bators,
Vainqueur,
Outsiders,
Alice Coltrane,
KRS-One,
Crispian St. Peters,
Black Moon,
Barbara Tucker,
Massinfluence,
The Last Poets,
Gregory Isaacs,
Dead Boys,
DJ Sneak,
Aaron Thompson,
World's Most,
Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance.
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.