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 Armenia and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 In Retrospect to the rock 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 The Dave Clark Five. All the underground hits.
All Malaria! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vainqueur 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Cale,
Aswad,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
the Human League,
The Slackers,
Agent Orange,
Gil Scott Heron,
Letta Mbulu,
Byron Stingily,
D'Angelo,
Aural Exciters,
Joensuu 1685,
Funkadelic,
Zapp,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Fear,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
T. Rex,
Robert Wyatt,
The Modern Lovers,
Bluetip,
Masters at Work,
Sound Behaviour,
Symarip,
A Certain Ratio,
The Doobie Brothers,
Eli Mardock,
Wally Richardson,
Mission of Burma,
Simply Red,
Rotary Connection,
The Monks,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Deadbeat,
Drive Like Jehu,
Sixth Finger,
Fatback Band,
The Human League,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Thompson Twins,
B.T. Express,
Eric Dolphy,
Bronski Beat,
Buzzcocks,
The Seeds,
Sun City Girls,
The Fall,
Pylon,
Drexciya,
Eddi Front,
The Toasters,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Bill Near,
Mary Jane Girls,
Icehouse,
Glenn Branca,
The Mummies,
Derrick May,
The Residents,
David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie.
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.