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 Cairo.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the oboe 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 The Red Krayola to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 ABC. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Saints 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 harpsichord and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Spoonie Gee,
The Dave Clark Five,
Traffic Nightmare,
Rapeman,
Tomorrow,
Urselle,
LL Cool J,
The Happenings,
Magma,
Bobby Womack,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
the Soft Cell,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Idris Muhammad,
Quadrant,
Terrestrial Tones,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Cure,
Lindisfarne,
The Offenders,
the Human League,
Ronnie Foster,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
John Holt,
This Heat,
David Bowie,
Robert Wyatt,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Black Bananas,
One Last Wish,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
UT,
Japan,
Hasil Adkins,
Soul II Soul,
Todd Terry,
Oblivians,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Fatback Band,
The Barracudas,
Quantec,
Pagans,
Schoolly D,
Malaria!,
B.T. Express,
The Selecter,
Camouflage,
Funky Four + One,
Main Source,
T. Rex,
Essential Logic,
Althea and Donna,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Cal Tjader,
Echospace,
Danielle Patucci,
Country Teasers,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Raincoats,
Eve St. Jones,
Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims.
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.