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 Gambia and from Shanghai.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Portland.
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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Smog to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Infiniti. All the underground hits.
All Tropical Tobacco tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Josef K 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Slick Rick record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slits,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Pylon,
Agitation Free,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Procol Harum,
Zapp,
Ten City,
Liliput,
The Gladiators,
Slick Rick,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Sandy B,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Fat Boys,
Sexual Harrassment,
Half Japanese,
Ronan,
Sex Pistols,
Young Marble Giants,
Maurizio,
The Last Poets,
Pharoah Sanders,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Henry Cow,
Black Pus,
Sugar Minott,
Essential Logic,
Circle Jerks,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Star Department,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Johnny Osbourne,
Grey Daturas,
Wally Richardson,
John Cale,
Al Stewart,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Shoche,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Smiths,
Main Source,
Masters at Work,
CMW,
Stockholm Monsters,
Sarah Menescal,
Chris & Cosey,
Harmonia,
Nick Fraelich,
Au Pairs,
The Evens,
Ituana,
Roy Ayers,
D'Angelo,
Tres Demented,
The Vogues,
Fear,
Hot Snakes,
Johnny Clarke,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Magma, Magma, Magma, Magma.
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.