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 Turkey and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 The Cure to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Johnny Osbourne. All the underground hits.
All Interpol tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Schoolly D record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Donny Hathaway record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hashim,
Ornette Coleman,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Throbbing Gristle,
Joe Smooth,
Judy Mowatt,
Prince Buster,
Robert Wyatt,
Boogie Down Productions,
Los Fastidios,
Lebanon Hanover,
Drexciya,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Ituana,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Vladislav Delay,
Icehouse,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
the Human League,
MC5,
Glenn Branca,
Lower 48,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Josef K,
The Sound,
Sugar Minott,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Chris Corsano,
Rhythm & Sound,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Franke,
Avey Tare,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Warren Ellis,
Dark Day,
Bill Wells,
Jeff Lynne,
Bizarre Inc.,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Magma,
Masters at Work,
Kevin Saunderson,
Ossler,
ABC,
Morten Harket,
The Smiths,
Nick Fraelich,
Sun Ra,
Bobby Womack,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Agent Orange,
Second Layer,
Susan Cadogan,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Trojans,
Mantronix,
X-101,
Au Pairs,
Jandek,
The Count Five, The Count Five, The Count Five, The Count Five.
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.