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 Venezuela and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Quadrant to the dance 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 Hot Snakes. All the underground hits.
All Malaria! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Manfred Mann's Earth Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Slits record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Judy Mowatt,
The Cramps,
Erykah Badu,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Das Ding,
Popol Vuh,
Jacob Miller,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Black Dice,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Silicon Teens,
Excepter,
Lou Reed,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Bobby Womack,
Johnny Clarke,
Niagra,
The Divine Comedy,
the Bar-Kays,
UT,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Make Up,
Electric Prunes,
Nation of Ulysses,
Easy Going,
Colin Newman,
Magma,
The Human League,
Shuggie Otis,
Theoretical Girls,
Eric B and Rakim,
John Holt,
Freddie Wadling,
David McCallum,
U.S. Maple,
The Buckinghams,
Barbara Tucker,
Jandek,
The Angels of Light,
Newcleus,
Gabor Szabo,
Bang On A Can,
Sonny Sharrock,
David Axelrod,
June Days,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
La Düsseldorf,
The Trojans,
Smog,
Terry Callier,
Vainqueur,
Anthony Braxton,
Bill Wells,
Bauhaus,
Derrick May,
The Sound,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Busters,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Cure,
Royal Trux,
June of 44,
Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine.
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.