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 Nicaragua and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Harpers Bizarre to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Radio Birdman. All the underground hits.
All The Gap Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dorothy Ashby record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 oboe and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echo & the Bunnymen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yusef Lateef,
Surgeon,
Urselle,
T.S.O.L.,
The Selecter,
Cheater Slicks,
Simply Red,
PIL,
Piero Umiliani,
The Golliwogs,
the Sonics,
Barbara Tucker,
The Sound,
Television Personalities,
John Cale,
Warsaw,
Vainqueur,
the Human League,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Kool Moe Dee,
CMW,
Can,
the Slits,
cv313,
The Cure,
Thompson Twins,
Brass Construction,
John Coltrane,
The Dave Clark Five,
Black Flag,
Thee Headcoats,
Lungfish,
Prince Buster,
Nirvana,
The Grass Roots,
The Sonics,
Black Moon,
Cymande,
Soft Cell,
Jacob Miller,
The Fuzztones,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Soul Sonic Force,
Crime,
The Gories,
Jimmy McGriff,
Public Enemy,
The Durutti Column,
Mars,
Soft Machine,
Echospace,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Jesper Dahlback,
Average White Band,
The Misunderstood,
Pylon,
The Moleskins,
The Five Americans,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Camberwell Now,
Delta 5,
A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio.
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.