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 Liberia and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 oboe 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 Warren Ellis to the disco 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 Derrick Morgan. All the underground hits.
All Black Flag tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Stooges record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mary Jane Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Spoonie Gee,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Althea and Donna,
The Dirtbombs,
Swell Maps,
The Barracudas,
Silicon Teens,
Al Stewart,
Pere Ubu,
Soft Cell,
ABC,
Bill Near,
Pierre Henry,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Oblivians,
The Selecter,
Radiohead,
Janne Schatter,
Smog,
Bush Tetras,
Jesper Dahlback,
Supertramp,
Bizarre Inc.,
Suburban Knight,
Bluetip,
Mo-Dettes,
Pharoah Sanders,
Kayak,
Alton Ellis,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Underground Resistance,
X-101,
Talk Talk,
OOIOO,
Tomorrow,
Hasil Adkins,
The Trojans,
Tears for Fears,
Clear Light,
Tubeway Army,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Deadbeat,
Inner City,
The Names,
DJ Sneak,
Mission of Burma,
Jeru the Damaja,
Yazoo,
EPMD,
Excepter,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Move,
The Toasters,
Black Flag,
The Searchers,
Magazine,
Crime,
Sister Nancy,
Outsiders, Outsiders, Outsiders, Outsiders.
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.