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 Ukraine and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 X-Ray Spex to the funk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Heavy D & The Boyz. All the underground hits.
All Brand Nubian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Laurel Aitken record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun Ra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bootsy Collins,
Spandau Ballet,
Bill Near,
Sonic Youth,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Sonics,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Cure,
Dennis Brown,
Spoonie Gee,
Drexciya,
Can,
Essential Logic,
The Pop Group,
Cecil Taylor,
The Selecter,
Pantaleimon,
The Martian,
The Associates,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Alphaville,
The Seeds,
Roger Hodgson,
Das Ding,
Charles Mingus,
The Knickerbockers,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Erykah Badu,
The Real Kids,
The Angels of Light,
Grandmaster Flash,
Eric B and Rakim,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Bronski Beat,
T. Rex,
The Searchers,
Schoolly D,
Pierre Henry,
The Durutti Column,
Babytalk,
The Gladiators,
Soul Sonic Force,
Nils Olav,
Scratch Acid,
Lakeside,
Mission of Burma,
Ludus,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Slackers,
Nick Fraelich,
Yaz,
Chrome,
Agent Orange,
Flash Fearless,
Scientists,
R.M.O.,
Intrusion,
Iggy Pop,
Oblivians,
EPMD,
Shoche, Shoche, Shoche, Shoche.
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.