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 Dominican Republic and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Erykah Badu to the rap 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 Pagans. All the underground hits.
All Hasil Adkins tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Cure record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hasil Adkins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
ABC,
Roger Hodgson,
Minny Pops,
The Barracudas,
Isaac Hayes,
Gregory Isaacs,
48th St. Collective,
The Buckinghams,
Scratch Acid,
Oblivians,
Jacob Miller,
F. McDonald,
The Alarm Clocks,
Rufus Thomas,
Mission of Burma,
Funky Four + One,
Henry Cow,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Erasure,
X-Ray Spex,
Drexciya,
Avey Tare,
Morten Harket,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Connie Case,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Detroit Cobras,
Con Funk Shun,
The New Christs,
Country Teasers,
Wasted Youth,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Residents,
David McCallum,
Pharoah Sanders,
The American Breed,
The Skatalites,
The Music Machine,
Second Layer,
Metal Thangz,
The Fire Engines,
David Axelrod,
Amazonics,
Faust,
The Trojans,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Offenders,
Charles Mingus,
Severed Heads,
Yazoo,
Siglo XX,
China Crisis,
Carl Craig,
Don Cherry,
Gang Gang Dance,
Jeff Mills,
The Cowsills,
PIL,
Cymande,
Delta 5,
Sugar Minott,
Ice-T, Ice-T, Ice-T, Ice-T.
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.