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 South Sudan and from Tokyo.
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 1960 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Easy Going to the grime 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 June of 44. All the underground hits.
All Sunsets and Hearts tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crash Course in Science 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Radiopuhelimet record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Sun Ra,
B.T. Express,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Marine Girls,
Roxy Music,
The Fugs,
Kas Product,
Radiohead,
The Black Dice,
LL Cool J,
Mandrill,
Crash Course in Science,
Nico,
Panda Bear,
The Count Five,
Faust,
Crime,
Television,
Yellowson,
Black Flag,
The Birthday Party,
Quando Quango,
Brand Nubian,
The Associates,
Graham Central Station,
Fat Boys,
Sun City Girls,
The Knickerbockers,
The Cramps,
The Names,
Tommy Roe,
Cal Tjader,
Skaos,
Bad Manners,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Urselle,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Eric Dolphy,
ABC,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Walker Brothers,
Isaac Hayes,
Leonard Cohen,
The Fire Engines,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
L. Decosne,
Camouflage,
Eve St. Jones,
Tim Buckley,
Skarface,
Morten Harket,
The Durutti Column,
Scrapy,
Guru Guru,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Jeru the Damaja,
Don Cherry,
David McCallum,
Con Funk Shun,
The Grass Roots, The Grass Roots, The Grass Roots, The Grass Roots.
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.