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 Laos and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 rhodes 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 Sarah Menescal to the techno 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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Gong tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Hood record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Wyatt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Red Krayola,
The Pop Group,
Warren Ellis,
Monks,
Television,
Q and Not U,
The Smiths,
Hoover,
The Cramps,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Mars,
Marshall Jefferson,
David Bowie,
Thompson Twins,
Terrestrial Tones,
These Immortal Souls,
Second Layer,
Los Fastidios,
The Fortunes,
Gil Scott Heron,
Minny Pops,
Brick,
48th St. Collective,
The Moody Blues,
Alice Coltrane,
The Buckinghams,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Swans,
Nils Olav,
Sarah Menescal,
Young Marble Giants,
X-101,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Guru Guru,
T. Rex,
David McCallum,
Janne Schatter,
The Last Poets,
Neil Young,
Minutemen,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Tomorrow,
Idris Muhammad,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Lee Hazlewood,
Leonard Cohen,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Sällskapet,
The Vogues,
Brass Construction,
kango's stein massive,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Flamin' Groovies,
Ronnie Foster,
OOIOO,
Pole,
Bauhaus,
8 Eyed Spy,
Saccharine Trust,
Patti Smith,
Anakelly,
In Retrospect,
Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader.
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.