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 Jordan and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Toasters to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 OOIOO. All the underground hits.
All Quantec tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Frankie Knuckles 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Terry Callier record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marmalade,
Funky Four + One,
Oneida,
The Last Poets,
The Raincoats,
Cameo,
The Angels of Light,
Q and Not U,
Eurythmics,
Mo-Dettes,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
John Coltrane,
Brothers Johnson,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Wake,
The Saints,
Hoover,
Robert Hood,
Chris Corsano,
Hardrive,
Motorama,
The Young Rascals,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Jeru the Damaja,
Al Stewart,
Patti Smith,
Sixth Finger,
The Standells,
Deadbeat,
Make Up,
Adolescents,
Archie Shepp,
Joe Smooth,
Blossom Toes,
Basic Channel,
Soft Cell,
The Cramps,
Thompson Twins,
Chris & Cosey,
Lindisfarne,
Peter and Kerry,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Knickerbockers,
Anakelly,
Boogie Down Productions,
Half Japanese,
the Bar-Kays,
Tears for Fears,
The Five Americans,
Intrusion,
Maleditus Sound,
The Black Dice,
Sun Ra,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Stetsasonic,
Gong,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Bobby Womack,
La Düsseldorf,
Man Eating Sloth,
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan.
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.