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 Monaco and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Jesper Dahlback to the crunk 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 Juan Atkins. All the underground hits.
All Dennis Brown tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Erasure record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a clarinet 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 clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Liliput,
The Pretty Things,
Big Daddy Kane,
Agitation Free,
the Soft Cell,
Ronnie Foster,
Lightning Bolt,
The Alarm Clocks,
Index,
Motorama,
Massinfluence,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Nils Olav,
Joe Smooth,
Warren Ellis,
Piero Umiliani,
the Normal,
The Stooges,
The J.B.'s,
Make Up,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Wire,
Boredoms,
Alice Coltrane,
Panda Bear,
The Monks,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Sällskapet,
Prince Buster,
Dawn Penn,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Freddie Wadling,
Juan Atkins,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Parry Music,
Slick Rick,
Ronan,
The Fuzztones,
Soul II Soul,
The Human League,
The Dave Clark Five,
Black Moon,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Sound Behaviour,
Monolake,
David McCallum,
Eric Copeland,
The American Breed,
Pharoah Sanders,
Sister Nancy,
Soulsonic Force,
The Gladiators,
Cluster,
Animal Collective,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
the Bar-Kays,
Skaos,
Scientists, Scientists, Scientists, Scientists.
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.