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 Cuba and from Johannesburg.
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 1963 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 clarinet 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 Bob Dylan to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bootsy Collins. All the underground hits.
All Bobbi Humphrey tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Knickerbockers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Reagan Youth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hasil Adkins,
B.T. Express,
Sight & Sound,
Yaz,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Bush Tetras,
The Cowsills,
X-Ray Spex,
The Star Department,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Lucky Dragons,
The Victims,
Erykah Badu,
Toni Rubio,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Hardrive,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Invisible,
Dual Sessions,
the Swans,
Mo-Dettes,
Interpol,
The American Breed,
Henry Cow,
Camouflage,
The Evens,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Section 25,
John Coltrane,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Charles Mingus,
Boz Scaggs,
Jacques Brel,
Negative Approach,
The Slits,
Angry Samoans,
Khruangbin,
Cheater Slicks,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Scrapy,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
MC5,
Saccharine Trust,
Albert Ayler,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Joey Negro,
Bootsy Collins,
Quadrant,
Ossler,
Jimmy McGriff,
Roxy Music,
Easy Going,
Fela Kuti,
The Wake,
The Cramps,
Niagra, Niagra, Niagra, Niagra.
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.