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 Niger and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Procol Harum to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Vladislav Delay. All the underground hits.
All Eurythmics tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every New York Dolls record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nation of Ulysses record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Holt,
Radio Birdman,
La Düsseldorf,
Yaz,
H. Thieme,
X-101,
The Raincoats,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Dave Gahan,
Cecil Taylor,
the Bar-Kays,
Essential Logic,
Tomorrow,
Barclay James Harvest,
Ornette Coleman,
Newcleus,
John Lydon,
The Selecter,
Dorothy Ashby,
Banda Bassotti,
The Tremeloes,
The Human League,
MDC,
China Crisis,
The Knickerbockers,
The Gun Club,
The Names,
Iggy Pop,
Yusef Lateef,
Camouflage,
Barbara Tucker,
Accadde A,
The Residents,
Bad Manners,
Visage,
Arab on Radar,
The Cure,
Wings,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Kenny Larkin,
Colin Newman,
Jeru the Damaja,
Pet Shop Boys,
Talk Talk,
The Beau Brummels,
Letta Mbulu,
Absolute Body Control,
Hoover,
Rakim,
Gabor Szabo,
The Golliwogs,
Spandau Ballet,
The Offenders,
The Cowsills,
Wire,
The Black Dice,
Deadbeat,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Slave,
The Martian,
Blossom Toes,
Animal Collective,
Stetsasonic,
the Normal, the Normal, the Normal, the Normal.
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.