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 India and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Portland.
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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
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 The Grass Roots to the techno 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 Deadbeat. All the underground hits.
All Neil Young & Crazy Horse tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bronski Beat 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Last Poets record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Guru Guru,
Wolf Eyes,
Underground Resistance,
Neil Young,
The Monochrome Set,
Fatback Band,
L. Decosne,
Ultravox,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Heaven 17,
the Human League,
Minor Threat,
Stereo Dub,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
AZ,
The Shadows of Knight,
Spoonie Gee,
Das Ding,
Nas,
Half Japanese,
Mary Jane Girls,
Thee Headcoats,
Lucky Dragons,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Kas Product,
Animal Collective,
The Gap Band,
The Pretty Things,
The Beau Brummels,
The Gladiators,
CMW,
Laurel Aitken,
Ohio Players,
FM Einheit,
The Zeros,
Delta 5,
James White and The Blacks,
The Music Machine,
Pantaleimon,
Barry Ungar,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Easy Going,
Rod Modell,
Big Daddy Kane,
Boogie Down Productions,
Colin Newman,
Nik Kershaw,
Moby Grape,
Howard Jones,
Agitation Free,
Jeru the Damaja,
U.S. Maple,
The Stooges,
Yusef Lateef,
Quadrant,
Rapeman,
The Count Five,
The Slits,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Moss Icon,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.