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 San Marino and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Beijing.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to the funk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Y Pants. All the underground hits.
All Wolf Eyes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Victims record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Doobie Brothers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
10cc,
Minnie Riperton,
Donny Hathaway,
John Lydon,
The Standells,
Unwound,
Marc Almond,
Smog,
The Detroit Cobras,
Todd Rundgren,
Pylon,
Drexciya,
Excepter,
New York Dolls,
Sixth Finger,
Marine Girls,
Sound Behaviour,
Technova,
Flipper,
Dark Day,
Erasure,
Kerri Chandler,
The Offenders,
Idris Muhammad,
Graham Central Station,
Cheater Slicks,
MC5,
Boogie Down Productions,
Steve Hackett,
Jeff Mills,
Sexual Harrassment,
Donald Byrd,
Theoretical Girls,
June Days,
Neu!,
Jandek,
Matthew Bourne,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Cramps,
Thee Headcoats,
Roy Ayers,
The Birthday Party,
the Soft Cell,
Echospace,
Yazoo,
Reuben Wilson,
The Cure,
David Axelrod,
Prince Buster,
Parry Music,
The Knickerbockers,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Al Stewart,
Ultimate Spinach,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Moss Icon,
Visage,
The Gap Band,
Stiv Bators,
Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville.
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.