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 Turkmenistan and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Sun Ra to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Connie Case. All the underground hits.
All Dennis Brown tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Graham Central Station record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Skatalites record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
a-ha,
The Zeros,
Nation of Ulysses,
Soul II Soul,
Wire,
The Leaves,
Pantytec,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Sam Rivers,
Gang Gang Dance,
Traffic Nightmare,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Names,
E-Dancer,
Blossom Toes,
Television Personalities,
Sixth Finger,
Porter Ricks,
Camouflage,
Aural Exciters,
The Seeds,
Lou Reed,
Quando Quango,
Marine Girls,
Wally Richardson,
Charles Mingus,
Livin' Joy,
Byron Stingily,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Grandmaster Flash,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
PIL,
Barrington Levy,
D'Angelo,
Unrelated Segments,
T. Rex,
The Detroit Cobras,
Amon Düül,
Cecil Taylor,
Mandrill,
Q and Not U,
Godley & Creme,
Lakeside,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Jeru the Damaja,
Idris Muhammad,
Lyres,
Bobby Byrd,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Wings,
The Angels of Light,
Boredoms,
Mad Mike,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Pretty Things,
The Invisible,
Simply Red,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Arab on Radar,
Bush Tetras,
Interpol,
The Walker Brothers,
OOIOO, OOIOO, OOIOO, OOIOO.
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.