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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
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 Peanut Butter Conspiracy to the rock 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 EPMD. All the underground hits.
All Black Sheep tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sly & The Family Stone record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Saccharine Trust record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lungfish,
Bob Dylan,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
PIL,
The Offenders,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Fugazi,
The Blackbyrds,
Brand Nubian,
The Golliwogs,
Dual Sessions,
The Music Machine,
Sun Ra,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
ABBA,
Matthew Bourne,
The Associates,
Bobby Womack,
Ken Boothe,
Agent Orange,
Zapp,
Tubeway Army,
Henry Cow,
Marshall Jefferson,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Curtis Mayfield,
Traffic Nightmare,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Zeros,
Sixth Finger,
Mission of Burma,
Tom Boy,
Brothers Johnson,
Severed Heads,
Sex Pistols,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Wasted Youth,
Ossler,
Electric Prunes,
Carl Craig,
Mark Hollis,
Altered Images,
KRS-One,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Public Enemy,
Interpol,
Joy Division,
The Black Dice,
the Human League,
Bush Tetras,
The Last Poets,
Neu!,
Davy DMX,
Grauzone,
Sound Behaviour,
Soft Cell,
Mantronix, Mantronix, Mantronix, Mantronix.
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.