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 Antigua and from Delhi.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Public Enemy to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Techniques. All the underground hits.
All Lafayette Afro Rock Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jawbox record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bizarre Inc. record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Mandrill,
Eric B and Rakim,
Gabor Szabo,
Basic Channel,
The Tremeloes,
Marmalade,
Gong,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Harmonia,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Fire Engines,
Los Fastidios,
Joy Division,
Cheater Slicks,
Funkadelic,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Kaleidoscope,
Half Japanese,
Idris Muhammad,
Stockholm Monsters,
Dawn Penn,
Derrick May,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Mojo Men,
Swell Maps,
The Evens,
Mark Hollis,
Oblivians,
Zapp,
Von Mondo,
Jesper Dahlback,
MDC,
Pierre Henry,
Excepter,
Scott Walker,
Stereo Dub,
Rapeman,
Pagans,
Isaac Hayes,
OOIOO,
Scientists,
Skarface,
The Seeds,
The Smiths,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Cramps,
Gang Green,
Porter Ricks,
Agent Orange,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Faraquet,
Crime,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Fortunes,
Leonard Cohen,
The Litter,
The J.B.'s,
Dual Sessions,
Ronan, Ronan, Ronan, Ronan.
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.