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 Thailand and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Ash Ra Tempel to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bobbi Humphrey. All the underground hits.
All The Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Siouxsie and the Banshees 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Art Ensemble Of Chicago record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nik Kershaw,
Angry Samoans,
Rotary Connection,
LL Cool J,
Fatback Band,
Harmonia,
Ultra Naté,
Adolescents,
Y Pants,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Amazonics,
Visage,
Robert Wyatt,
Sun Ra,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Procol Harum,
Fat Boys,
This Heat,
The Kinks,
Barrington Levy,
Joe Smooth,
Animal Collective,
Scrapy,
Urselle,
H. Thieme,
The Blackbyrds,
The Searchers,
The Real Kids,
Severed Heads,
Crime,
Lindisfarne,
Con Funk Shun,
T. Rex,
These Immortal Souls,
Funkadelic,
Infiniti,
Reuben Wilson,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Pole,
The Count Five,
The Zeros,
Eric B and Rakim,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Little Man,
Quando Quango,
Clear Light,
Warren Ellis,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Crooked Eye,
Robert Hood,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Skriet,
The Human League,
Scratch Acid,
Duran Duran,
Stockholm Monsters,
Porter Ricks,
R.M.O.,
Kool Moe Dee,
Gang Green,
Swell Maps,
Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd.
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.