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 Iraq and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Houston.
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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Severed Heads to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 X-Ray Spex. All the underground hits.
All The Gladiators tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Last Poets record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Modern Lovers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Skatalites,
The Real Kids,
Marvin Gaye,
Fat Boys,
Gerry Rafferty,
Young Marble Giants,
The Walker Brothers,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Fatback Band,
The Searchers,
Funkadelic,
the Bar-Kays,
Isaac Hayes,
The Toasters,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Barclay James Harvest,
Unrelated Segments,
Pet Shop Boys,
a-ha,
Los Fastidios,
The Mojo Men,
Dorothy Ashby,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sonic Youth,
Slick Rick,
Hashim,
La Düsseldorf,
Lightning Bolt,
Marcia Griffiths,
Agent Orange,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Young Rascals,
Cal Tjader,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
David Bowie,
Max Romeo,
Erykah Badu,
Can,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
New Order,
Deadbeat,
Groovy Waters,
Infiniti,
Scientists,
Angry Samoans,
Spoonie Gee,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Roy Ayers,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Ornette Coleman,
Eric B and Rakim,
David Axelrod,
Pantytec,
Stereo Dub,
The Neon Judgement,
Gabor Szabo,
Albert Ayler,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Tim Buckley,
Black Flag,
Davy DMX,
Judy Mowatt,
Dead Boys,
Theoretical Girls,
Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya.
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.