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 Senegal and from Shanghai.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Names. All the underground hits.
All AZ tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blake Baxter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Curtis Mayfield record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Shadows of Knight,
A Certain Ratio,
Kerri Chandler,
U.S. Maple,
Mad Mike,
Sarah Menescal,
Quantec,
Guru Guru,
Drexciya,
Blake Baxter,
The Martian,
ABBA,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Lightning Bolt,
Brand Nubian,
Rhythm & Sound,
AZ,
The Litter,
Boogie Down Productions,
Bobby Byrd,
New Age Steppers,
Minor Threat,
Josef K,
Basic Channel,
Q and Not U,
Half Japanese,
Rapeman,
CMW,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tomorrow,
Mantronix,
In Retrospect,
Bobby Sherman,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
EPMD,
Infiniti,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Dirtbombs,
Joyce Sims,
Janne Schatter,
Drive Like Jehu,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Soft Cell,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Peter & Gordon,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Fortunes,
Oneida,
Rufus Thomas,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Happenings,
Sight & Sound,
Yellowson,
Pharoah Sanders,
New York Dolls,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
DNA,
Lower 48,
Ultimate Spinach,
Brick,
Flipper,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills.
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.