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 Vanuatu and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Yusef Lateef to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Blackbyrds. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bauhaus record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an oboe 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 marimba and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Spandau Ballet,
The Martian,
The Sonics,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Cybotron,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Dark Day,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Fuzztones,
Scratch Acid,
Hashim,
Henry Cow,
Al Stewart,
Arab on Radar,
Michelle Simonal,
Essential Logic,
Thee Headcoats,
Chrome,
Prince Buster,
Radiohead,
Graham Central Station,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Detroit Cobras,
Pantytec,
Peter & Gordon,
Zapp,
Loose Ends,
Leonard Cohen,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Tears for Fears,
Minutemen,
Scrapy,
Wasted Youth,
Nas,
Malaria!,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Smiths,
the Fania All-Stars,
Pere Ubu,
Fatback Band,
Joe Finger,
The Alarm Clocks,
Cymande,
Jerry's Kids,
John Cale,
Carl Craig,
Nation of Ulysses,
Glambeats Corp.,
Kenny Larkin,
Connie Case,
Crispian St. Peters,
Beasts of Bourbon,
James White and The Blacks,
Rufus Thomas,
Neu!,
Unrelated Segments,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Guru Guru,
Amazonics,
Reagan Youth,
Bill Near,
The United States of America,
Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front.
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.