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 Belize and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Rites of Spring to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 X-101. All the underground hits.
All The Tremeloes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Lydon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blossom Toes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soul II Soul,
Essential Logic,
The Selecter,
Cheater Slicks,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Grey Daturas,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Lungfish,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Traffic Nightmare,
Lalann,
Stereo Dub,
Easy Going,
Rekid,
Nick Fraelich,
Cameo,
The Modern Lovers,
Don Cherry,
Electric Prunes,
Slave,
Blake Baxter,
Swell Maps,
Cal Tjader,
Pulsallama,
Yellowson,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Oblivians,
Alison Limerick,
Soft Machine,
The Offenders,
Severed Heads,
Hashim,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Andrew Hill,
Sugar Minott,
Neil Young,
Harpers Bizarre,
Donny Hathaway,
The Happenings,
Loose Ends,
Byron Stingily,
Althea and Donna,
Mantronix,
Josef K,
Bobbi Humphrey,
New York Dolls,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Iggy Pop,
Harmonia,
John Cale,
The Kinks,
Fluxion,
Sound Behaviour,
Jeff Mills,
Arthur Verocai,
The Sound,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Buckinghams,
Altered Images,
The Star Department,
Matthew Halsall,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Echospace, Echospace, Echospace, Echospace.
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.