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 Laos and from Columbus.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Oneida to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Fela Kuti. All the underground hits.
All The J.B.'s tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Hutcherson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scrapy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Red Krayola,
The Gladiators,
Crash Course in Science,
Eden Ahbez,
The Golliwogs,
Liliput,
Alphaville,
the Sonics,
Funkadelic,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Evens,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Faust,
Los Fastidios,
Fat Boys,
Blossom Toes,
The J.B.'s,
This Heat,
Boogie Down Productions,
X-102,
The Angels of Light,
Roy Ayers,
Al Stewart,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Banda Bassotti,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Blake Baxter,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Fugs,
Ohio Players,
Joey Negro,
Connie Case,
Bad Manners,
Von Mondo,
Anthony Braxton,
Eric Copeland,
Byron Stingily,
Harry Pussy,
Nation of Ulysses,
Camouflage,
Jacques Brel,
The Sound,
Barclay James Harvest,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Hasil Adkins,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Gang of Four,
LL Cool J,
Unrelated Segments,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Graham Central Station,
Con Funk Shun,
Mandrill,
Warren Ellis,
Barbara Tucker,
Lucky Dragons,
Skaos,
Crispian St. Peters,
Q65,
Shoche, Shoche, Shoche, Shoche.
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.