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 Latvia and from Stockholm.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Cheater Slicks to the funk 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 the Slits. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra Arkestra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Schoolly D record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 a güiro and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hasil Adkins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Anthony Braxton,
Neil Young,
Man Parrish,
Pantaleimon,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Fela Kuti,
Ultimate Spinach,
Absolute Body Control,
The Busters,
Matthew Halsall,
The Wake,
Joy Division,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Fatback Band,
Von Mondo,
Grey Daturas,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Ten City,
The Gun Club,
Joe Smooth,
The Divine Comedy,
Cecil Taylor,
Agent Orange,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Malaria!,
Au Pairs,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Eric Dolphy,
Pharoah Sanders,
Ossler,
Colin Newman,
The Kinks,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
John Cale,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Ludus,
Pylon,
The Human League,
Boz Scaggs,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Kerrie Biddell,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Steve Hackett,
The Seeds,
Pulsallama,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Amazonics,
The Gap Band,
Letta Mbulu,
Mad Mike,
Crime,
Tropical Tobacco,
Gregory Isaacs,
Siglo XX,
MDC,
cv313,
Derrick Morgan,
Gang Green,
Easy Going,
Cameo,
the Swans, the Swans, the Swans, the Swans.
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.