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 Ireland and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Sexual Harrassment to the grime 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 Robert Görl. All the underground hits.
All Graham Central Station tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Patti Smith 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
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 Grandmaster Flash record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alice Coltrane,
Lyres,
Kool Moe Dee,
Sixth Finger,
B.T. Express,
Japan,
Masters at Work,
Cal Tjader,
The Gories,
Tim Buckley,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lindisfarne,
Q and Not U,
Delta 5,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
ABC,
Terrestrial Tones,
Pantytec,
PIL,
The Pop Group,
Ultravox,
Johnny Clarke,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Grass Roots,
The Last Poets,
The Detroit Cobras,
Blancmange,
Radiohead,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The J.B.'s,
Skriet,
48th St. Collective,
Glenn Branca,
LL Cool J,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Funky Four + One,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Jandek,
Dorothy Ashby,
A Certain Ratio,
Desert Stars,
Dennis Brown,
Bootsy Collins,
Avey Tare,
Scion,
Sight & Sound,
Hasil Adkins,
The Young Rascals,
Kevin Saunderson,
Severed Heads,
Gang of Four,
Half Japanese,
Cheater Slicks,
John Holt,
Royal Trux,
Cymande,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Fuzztones,
Pylon,
Ohio Players, Ohio Players, Ohio Players, Ohio Players.
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.