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 Benin and from Lyon.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 Nile Rodgers 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 Goldenarms to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Eurythmics. All the underground hits.
All Severed Heads tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every E-Dancer 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Agitation Free record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mary Jane Girls,
Faust,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Nas,
Basic Channel,
Sparks,
Drexciya,
Flash Fearless,
Leonard Cohen,
Sam Rivers,
K-Klass,
The Count Five,
Robert Wyatt,
Mission of Burma,
Smog,
Jandek,
Wally Richardson,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Misunderstood,
Monks,
Scion,
Black Bananas,
Fat Boys,
Henry Cow,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Davy DMX,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Lower 48,
the Association,
Soulsonic Force,
The Knickerbockers,
Lakeside,
Second Layer,
Patti Smith,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Velvet Underground,
Skriet,
Be Bop Deluxe,
X-102,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Durutti Column,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Parry Music,
Pagans,
Popol Vuh,
Ohio Players,
Little Man,
Bobby Sherman,
Archie Shepp,
Graham Central Station,
The Smoke,
The Fugs,
Lyres,
Dawn Penn,
Moby Grape,
Flipper,
Tres Demented,
The Fortunes,
The Golliwogs,
Eurythmics,
Visage,
The Litter, The Litter, The Litter, The Litter.
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.