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 Slovenia and from Hong Kong.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 organ 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 The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band to the jazz kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Big Daddy Kane. All the underground hits.
All Gian Franco Pienzio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Peanut Butter Conspiracy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Amon Düül,
Joey Negro,
Animal Collective,
Eric B and Rakim,
Soft Machine,
Dawn Penn,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Throbbing Gristle,
Cheater Slicks,
Kool Moe Dee,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Mummies,
Can,
Pet Shop Boys,
Mark Hollis,
Eve St. Jones,
Marvin Gaye,
Grauzone,
The Invisible,
Matthew Bourne,
Tubeway Army,
Tom Boy,
Tim Buckley,
Au Pairs,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Eyeless In Gaza,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Names,
The Remains,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Camouflage,
Sex Pistols,
Lindisfarne,
Quantec,
Monolake,
The Litter,
Robert Hood,
the Slits,
Icehouse,
Silicon Teens,
The Busters,
cv313,
The Selecter,
Sun Ra,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Flash Fearless,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Malaria!,
DNA,
Cal Tjader,
Kas Product,
Von Mondo,
the Sonics,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Techniques,
Ornette Coleman,
Leonard Cohen,
X-Ray Spex,
The Searchers,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Yazoo, Yazoo, Yazoo, Yazoo.
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.