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 Togo and from Mumbai.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Ludus to the jazz kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Last Poets. All the underground hits.
All Eric B and Rakim tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vainqueur 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kenny Larkin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tres Demented,
Johnny Osbourne,
Barbara Tucker,
The Skatalites,
Hoover,
Accadde A,
Mark Hollis,
Ultra Naté,
The Motions,
Jawbox,
Audionom,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Martian,
The Monochrome Set,
Massinfluence,
Arcadia,
The Blues Magoos,
The Moleskins,
Gregory Isaacs,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Traffic Nightmare,
Vainqueur,
Dual Sessions,
Johnny Clarke,
Alton Ellis,
Kurtis Blow,
Country Teasers,
The Shadows of Knight,
Eric B and Rakim,
Urselle,
Terrestrial Tones,
Tom Boy,
EPMD,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Gun Club,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Chris Corsano,
The Victims,
Soft Machine,
Parry Music,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Roxy Music,
Bootsy Collins,
OOIOO,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Sister Nancy,
The Smoke,
Make Up,
Ludus,
This Heat,
The Gladiators,
CMW,
Quando Quango,
The Dead C,
the Germs,
E-Dancer,
DJ Style,
The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers.
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.