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 Mongolia and from Jakarta.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
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 The Durutti Column to the dance 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 Moody Blues. All the underground hits.
All The Pretty Things tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every In Retrospect record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nation of Ulysses record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Johnny Osbourne,
Aural Exciters,
Masters at Work,
The Human League,
Fad Gadget,
X-Ray Spex,
Archie Shepp,
Quadrant,
The Mojo Men,
Godley & Creme,
Shuggie Otis,
Siglo XX,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Joey Negro,
Ultimate Spinach,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Jimmy McGriff,
Faraquet,
Organ,
The United States of America,
Saccharine Trust,
The Misunderstood,
A Certain Ratio,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Adolescents,
Ponytail,
Big Daddy Kane,
Mars,
The American Breed,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Albert Ayler,
Pantytec,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Underground Resistance,
Brand Nubian,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Kurtis Blow,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Thee Headcoats,
The Fuzztones,
Bootsy Collins,
The Music Machine,
the Swans,
Eric Dolphy,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Cramps,
Sound Behaviour,
The Invisible,
Lou Christie,
Gregory Isaacs,
Depeche Mode,
Visage,
Laurel Aitken,
U.S. Maple,
The Gladiators,
Panda Bear,
Roxy Music,
Average White Band,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Alice Coltrane,
The Fortunes, The Fortunes, The Fortunes, The Fortunes.
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.