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 Zimbabwe and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Quantec to the crunk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. All the underground hits.
All Frankie Knuckles tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suburban Knight 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a MC5 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soft Cell,
Monolake,
Alton Ellis,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Blake Baxter,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Reuben Wilson,
Grauzone,
Jerry's Kids,
The Martian,
The Skatalites,
The Beau Brummels,
FM Einheit,
Scrapy,
Agitation Free,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Swell Maps,
The Slits,
Fugazi,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Eric B and Rakim,
Scott Walker,
Blancmange,
The Smoke,
Sonic Youth,
Vladislav Delay,
OOIOO,
The Leaves,
Jesper Dahlback,
Whodini,
Colin Newman,
Robert Hood,
Minor Threat,
Eric Copeland,
Siglo XX,
Gregory Isaacs,
Bauhaus,
The Golliwogs,
David Bowie,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Cure,
Judy Mowatt,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Jandek,
Urselle,
Shoche,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Grass Roots,
Eli Mardock,
Kerrie Biddell,
Pierre Henry,
Silicon Teens,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Camouflage,
Boredoms,
The Litter,
Technova,
Barrington Levy,
Barry Ungar,
Delta 5,
Barclay James Harvest,
Depeche Mode,
Dorothy Ashby, Dorothy Ashby, Dorothy Ashby, Dorothy Ashby.
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.