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 Ivory Coast and from Bremen.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Minutemen to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Hasil Adkins. All the underground hits.
All Cabaret Voltaire tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gil Scott Heron record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warren Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Minnie Riperton,
The Kinks,
Spoonie Gee,
Juan Atkins,
The Buckinghams,
Mars,
Hashim,
Amon Düül,
Black Pus,
Arab on Radar,
Albert Ayler,
The Techniques,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Fugazi,
Minutemen,
Ossler,
Index,
Lyres,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Moleskins,
FM Einheit,
Sister Nancy,
the Fania All-Stars,
Kenny Larkin,
Vladislav Delay,
Unrelated Segments,
Sun City Girls,
Marcia Griffiths,
Porter Ricks,
Morten Harket,
Bad Manners,
Essential Logic,
OOIOO,
Bootsy Collins,
U.S. Maple,
Throbbing Gristle,
Dawn Penn,
Oneida,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Johnny Osbourne,
Janne Schatter,
Matthew Bourne,
Hasil Adkins,
Heaven 17,
Young Marble Giants,
Malaria!,
Slick Rick,
Wolf Eyes,
Peter and Kerry,
the Human League,
Alice Coltrane,
Whodini,
Excepter,
Todd Terry,
Gang of Four,
Pole,
Davy DMX,
John Cale,
Lakeside,
Brick,
Dennis Brown,
Eurythmics,
Kerrie Biddell,
Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway.
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.