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 Mauritania and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the 808 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 Motorama to the disco 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 The Chocolate Watch Band. All the underground hits.
All Outsiders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gian Franco Pienzio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Royal Trux record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Pretty Things,
Crash Course in Science,
Soul II Soul,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
China Crisis,
The Barracudas,
Mad Mike,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Outsiders,
Robert Hood,
Archie Shepp,
Ken Boothe,
Jerry's Kids,
Spoonie Gee,
Organ,
Donny Hathaway,
Theoretical Girls,
Derrick May,
Sly & The Family Stone,
the Fania All-Stars,
Susan Cadogan,
Rufus Thomas,
Adolescents,
Quadrant,
Newcleus,
MDC,
Eric Dolphy,
Flamin' Groovies,
World's Most,
Audionom,
The Residents,
The Sound,
Crispian St. Peters,
Lindisfarne,
Scratch Acid,
Boz Scaggs,
Sunsets and Hearts,
John Holt,
L. Decosne,
Deakin,
Banda Bassotti,
Marc Almond,
R.M.O.,
Moebius,
Nas,
Josef K,
Clear Light,
Jacob Miller,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Joy Division,
Cymande,
the Swans,
Icehouse,
Connie Case,
Arthur Verocai,
Qualms,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
the Bar-Kays,
Essential Logic,
Alton Ellis,
the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
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.