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 Nepal and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Derrick Morgan to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Smoke. All the underground hits.
All Sarah Menescal tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cymande record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Doobie Brothers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Last Poets,
EPMD,
Au Pairs,
Barclay James Harvest,
Wolf Eyes,
Young Marble Giants,
The Monochrome Set,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Groovy Waters,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Colin Newman,
China Crisis,
Nirvana,
Patti Smith,
Audionom,
John Cale,
Bobby Womack,
Harpers Bizarre,
Bill Near,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Johnny Osbourne,
Gil Scott Heron,
MC5,
Todd Rundgren,
DJ Style,
The Smoke,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Marine Girls,
Scan 7,
The Kinks,
Harmonia,
Tommy Roe,
Fatback Band,
Ultimate Spinach,
A Certain Ratio,
Lyres,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Gong,
Kurtis Blow,
Jacob Miller,
Lower 48,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Searchers,
Vainqueur,
The Gories,
Neil Young,
Pantytec,
The Dirtbombs,
The Pretty Things,
Darondo,
Marmalade,
Sonic Youth,
The Grass Roots,
Talk Talk,
Tom Boy,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Mark Hollis,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Sight & Sound,
The Fugs,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu.
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.