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 Cameroon and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Babytalk to the rock kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Fortunes. All the underground hits.
All Eve St. Jones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Durutti Column record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alton Ellis,
Bobby Womack,
Tommy Roe,
The Dead C,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Dorothy Ashby,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Bill Wells,
Rapeman,
Joe Smooth,
Brothers Johnson,
Organ,
Shoche,
Fort Wilson Riot,
James White and The Blacks,
Schoolly D,
Adolescents,
Kayak,
Bad Manners,
Anthony Braxton,
Radiopuhelimet,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
DNA,
Siglo XX,
New York Dolls,
Grey Daturas,
a-ha,
Funkadelic,
Easy Going,
The Red Krayola,
The Divine Comedy,
Essential Logic,
Marshall Jefferson,
Barrington Levy,
Arthur Verocai,
Kurtis Blow,
Peter and Kerry,
Gang of Four,
Sixth Finger,
Sarah Menescal,
Rosa Yemen,
Groovy Waters,
Deepchord,
Trumans Water,
Brand Nubian,
Tom Boy,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Smoke,
PIL,
Hasil Adkins,
Donny Hathaway,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Derrick Morgan,
Cybotron,
Lou Christie,
John Coltrane,
Electric Prunes,
The Searchers,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Main Source,
Cecil Taylor,
The Mummies, The Mummies, The Mummies, The Mummies.
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.