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 Barbados and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Arthur Verocai to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Richard Hell and the Voidoids. All the underground hits.
All Joe Smooth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Aaron Thompson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Raincoats record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Alarm Clocks,
Duran Duran,
The Raincoats,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Gichy Dan,
Tommy Roe,
Barry Ungar,
Alice Coltrane,
Stetsasonic,
Robert Hood,
Scratch Acid,
Cal Tjader,
Glenn Branca,
Reuben Wilson,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Letta Mbulu,
The Associates,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Accadde A,
Fat Boys,
Little Man,
Surgeon,
Nick Fraelich,
Janne Schatter,
Banda Bassotti,
Aloha Tigers,
Crash Course in Science,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Shadows of Knight,
Youth Brigade,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Stiv Bators,
Bill Wells,
Boogie Down Productions,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Scrapy,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Hashim,
Andrew Hill,
Jacob Miller,
Intrusion,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Visage,
The Searchers,
Marvin Gaye,
Jerry's Kids,
Lou Reed,
Iggy Pop,
The Cowsills,
Radiohead,
Alison Limerick,
the Slits,
The Monks,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Pere Ubu,
Kurtis Blow,
Colin Newman,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Au Pairs,
Smog,
Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants.
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.