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 Vietnam and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez 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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Fania All-Stars to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks. All the underground hits.
All Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Real Kids 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barbara Tucker record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
Sun Ra,
The Cosmic Jokers,
New Age Steppers,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Public Image Ltd.,
AZ,
Prince Buster,
KRS-One,
Kevin Saunderson,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Cluster,
The Modern Lovers,
Davy DMX,
Popol Vuh,
Stiv Bators,
Brick,
Gang of Four,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Shoche,
Lebanon Hanover,
Sound Behaviour,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
DJ Sneak,
The Count Five,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Leaves,
Fad Gadget,
Rites of Spring,
Archie Shepp,
D'Angelo,
Maleditus Sound,
F. McDonald,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Knickerbockers,
Gerry Rafferty,
Aural Exciters,
Half Japanese,
Radio Birdman,
Swans,
Matthew Bourne,
Bobby Womack,
Television,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
8 Eyed Spy,
Procol Harum,
Junior Murvin,
Spandau Ballet,
Sunsets and Hearts,
X-Ray Spex,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Mo-Dettes,
the Human League,
Visage,
Ultimate Spinach,
E-Dancer,
Gastr Del Sol,
Erasure,
Rosa Yemen,
The Vogues,
World's Most,
Fatback Band,
Drexciya,
Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron.
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.