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 Madagascar and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Erasure to the rock 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 Rosa Yemen. All the underground hits.
All Eli Mardock tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Schoolly D 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yazoo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
10cc,
Guru Guru,
Zero Boys,
Crispy Ambulance,
Jacques Brel,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Morten Harket,
Chrome,
Babytalk,
The Dirtbombs,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Mojo Men,
Fela Kuti,
Sound Behaviour,
Gil Scott Heron,
Pantaleimon,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Colin Newman,
The Barracudas,
Soft Machine,
Basic Channel,
Kurtis Blow,
The Cowsills,
Von Mondo,
Qualms,
Cheater Slicks,
Rekid,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Black Bananas,
Chris & Cosey,
Bizarre Inc.,
Drive Like Jehu,
Procol Harum,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tommy Roe,
The Fugs,
Idris Muhammad,
Althea and Donna,
Delon & Dalcan,
Radiopuhelimet,
Gregory Isaacs,
Joe Smooth,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Eric B and Rakim,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Television,
The Grass Roots,
The Red Krayola,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Skatalites,
Barclay James Harvest,
Eurythmics,
Prince Buster,
Unwound,
Juan Atkins,
Henry Cow,
Young Marble Giants,
The Flesh Eaters,
Pere Ubu,
The Residents,
Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes, Hot Snakes.
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.