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 Libya and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the oboe 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 Boz Scaggs 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 Janne Schatter. All the underground hits.
All The Red Krayola tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Music Machine 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Archie Shepp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Alarm Clocks,
Sight & Sound,
Kevin Saunderson,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Animal Collective,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Wasted Youth,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Dual Sessions,
Zapp,
Suburban Knight,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Fat Boys,
Scientists,
Magazine,
Bang On A Can,
James Chance & The Contortions,
the Soft Cell,
Scott Walker,
the Germs,
U.S. Maple,
The Happenings,
Michelle Simonal,
Gabor Szabo,
Sexual Harrassment,
Camberwell Now,
The Young Rascals,
Fad Gadget,
Kenny Larkin,
The Black Dice,
The Grass Roots,
Jerry's Kids,
Gang Green,
Piero Umiliani,
Traffic Nightmare,
Fatback Band,
Soulsonic Force,
Pere Ubu,
Delta 5,
Warren Ellis,
Todd Terry,
Alison Limerick,
Mad Mike,
Mandrill,
48th St. Collective,
The Cure,
Oblivians,
ABC,
Fela Kuti,
Dark Day,
Talk Talk,
The Moody Blues,
Brothers Johnson,
Niagra,
Hot Snakes,
Quantec,
Bobby Sherman,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Brand Nubian,
John Coltrane,
The Zeros,
Cluster, Cluster, Cluster, Cluster.
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.