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 Kenya and from Glasgow.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
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 Average White Band to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Brass Construction. All the underground hits.
All Eric Dolphy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Banda Bassotti record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joe Smooth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Avey Tare,
Bad Manners,
Thompson Twins,
The Searchers,
Lucky Dragons,
Roy Ayers,
The Residents,
Gong,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Fugazi,
Eric B and Rakim,
Frankie Knuckles,
Robert Görl,
Dorothy Ashby,
EPMD,
Harry Pussy,
Newcleus,
Pierre Henry,
Jacques Brel,
Au Pairs,
Bobby Womack,
Urselle,
Pharoah Sanders,
Drive Like Jehu,
Hardrive,
X-101,
Yazoo,
Alice Coltrane,
Nico,
Metal Thangz,
The Smiths,
Symarip,
Marcia Griffiths,
Index,
Jeru the Damaja,
Faust,
Qualms,
The Pop Group,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Idris Muhammad,
Minnie Riperton,
Gregory Isaacs,
Vladislav Delay,
Black Moon,
The Moody Blues,
Josef K,
Ultravox,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Crime,
10cc,
Aloha Tigers,
Johnny Clarke,
Man Eating Sloth,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Count Five,
Sandy B,
The Offenders,
Archie Shepp,
Joe Finger,
R.M.O.,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Brick, Brick, Brick, Brick.
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.