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 Venezuela and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 Taipei and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Matthew Halsall to the jazz 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 Fort Wilson Riot. All the underground hits.
All Ash Ra Tempel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sad Lovers and Giants record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an organ and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Qualms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Theoretical Girls,
Technova,
Essential Logic,
Lyres,
Whodini,
Cymande,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Cybotron,
Moebius,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Massinfluence,
Carl Craig,
Todd Rundgren,
Flipper,
The Names,
Aswad,
Fela Kuti,
Flash Fearless,
Aloha Tigers,
Malaria!,
Johnny Clarke,
Ultra Naté,
The Fortunes,
Tommy Roe,
Average White Band,
Bobby Byrd,
Khruangbin,
Inner City,
Make Up,
10cc,
Magma,
John Foxx,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lindisfarne,
Eric Copeland,
MC5,
Sun City Girls,
Thee Headcoats,
David Bowie,
Joy Division,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Gap Band,
Sound Behaviour,
Suburban Knight,
The Music Machine,
The Real Kids,
The Selecter,
Dawn Penn,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Human League,
Iggy Pop,
The American Breed,
Q65,
Soft Cell,
Popol Vuh,
Excepter,
The Invisible,
The Stooges,
Pussy Galore,
Agitation Free,
The Fall,
Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel.
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.