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 Greece and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 La Düsseldorf to the punk 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 Lebanon Hanover. All the underground hits.
All X-102 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Laurel Aitken record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Prince Buster record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Pere Ubu,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Reuben Wilson,
Jeru the Damaja,
Black Flag,
Tropical Tobacco,
T.S.O.L.,
The Move,
cv313,
The Electric Prunes,
DJ Sneak,
Ludus,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Fear,
Main Source,
Theoretical Girls,
Marine Girls,
Pulsallama,
The Misunderstood,
Mary Jane Girls,
Traffic Nightmare,
Arcadia,
Sonic Youth,
Metal Thangz,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Marcia Griffiths,
Panda Bear,
Urselle,
Hot Snakes,
Ronan,
Lou Christie,
The Detroit Cobras,
Dead Boys,
Public Enemy,
MC5,
Lower 48,
Judy Mowatt,
LL Cool J,
Barry Ungar,
Arthur Verocai,
Mad Mike,
Rhythm & Sound,
Lightning Bolt,
Parry Music,
Frankie Knuckles,
The United States of America,
Roxy Music,
ABBA,
Mission of Burma,
the Swans,
Swell Maps,
Underground Resistance,
Jeff Mills,
Young Marble Giants,
Q65,
The Five Americans,
Girls At Our Best!,
Sixth Finger,
The Walker Brothers,
Cybotron, Cybotron, Cybotron, Cybotron.
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.