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 Nauru and from Johannesburg.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
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 Slave to the punk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Brass Construction. All the underground hits.
All Hardrive tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Leaves record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a 8 Eyed Spy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Delta 5,
One Last Wish,
Marmalade,
Alton Ellis,
Magazine,
Ronnie Foster,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Young Rascals,
The Pop Group,
Howard Jones,
Godley & Creme,
Sun Ra,
Dark Day,
James Chance & The Contortions,
the Swans,
Man Parrish,
Byron Stingily,
Sandy B,
Bauhaus,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Wake,
The Velvet Underground,
The Real Kids,
Anthony Braxton,
Radiohead,
Grey Daturas,
The Sonics,
Reuben Wilson,
Rotary Connection,
Aural Exciters,
Echospace,
Darondo,
the Human League,
The Vogues,
Organ,
The Neon Judgement,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Index,
Sound Behaviour,
Hoover,
The Fuzztones,
Lyres,
Main Source,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Gang Green,
Junior Murvin,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Last Poets,
Yusef Lateef,
10cc,
Absolute Body Control,
Graham Central Station,
Matthew Bourne,
Man Eating Sloth,
Connie Case,
Animal Collective,
Moss Icon,
Adolescents,
Fatback Band,
James White and The Blacks,
Letta Mbulu,
Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal.
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.