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 Grenada and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell 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 The Black Dice. All the underground hits.
All Kayak tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Holt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Last Poets,
Gong,
The Durutti Column,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
John Lydon,
Robert Wyatt,
James Chance & The Contortions,
AZ,
E-Dancer,
Banda Bassotti,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Oneida,
The Dead C,
Ossler,
The Raincoats,
Marvin Gaye,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Rod Modell,
Patti Smith,
Stereo Dub,
Erasure,
Absolute Body Control,
The Walker Brothers,
Kerrie Biddell,
Thompson Twins,
Aural Exciters,
Ohio Players,
Electric Prunes,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
London Community Gospel Choir,
John Cale,
Mission of Burma,
Gichy Dan,
Simply Red,
Half Japanese,
The Litter,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Tom Boy,
Dennis Brown,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Sight & Sound,
Freddie Wadling,
Black Pus,
The Trojans,
Country Teasers,
Oblivians,
Sam Rivers,
Kurtis Blow,
The Fire Engines,
Marc Almond,
Babytalk,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Urselle,
Ponytail,
Sun Ra,
Motorama,
Altered Images,
Amazonics,
Nas,
The Victims,
David Bowie,
China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis.
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.