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 Poland and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the organ 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 Aswad to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The Blackbyrds. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fort Wilson Riot 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Johnny Osbourne,
Joe Finger,
Intrusion,
Joyce Sims,
Stereo Dub,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Quadrant,
the Association,
Neu!,
X-101,
Bauhaus,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Soulsonic Force,
Drexciya,
Junior Murvin,
Judy Mowatt,
Neil Young,
Kerrie Biddell,
Moebius,
Groovy Waters,
Fear,
The Slackers,
The Busters,
Don Cherry,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Funky Four + One,
Pagans,
Second Layer,
Banda Bassotti,
Organ,
Bobby Byrd,
Scott Walker,
Loose Ends,
Derrick May,
Absolute Body Control,
Scion,
Moss Icon,
Iggy Pop,
Simply Red,
Jeru the Damaja,
Prince Buster,
The Dead C,
Symarip,
Jesper Dahlback,
Bill Wells,
Bad Manners,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Von Mondo,
Donny Hathaway,
the Fania All-Stars,
Shuggie Otis,
The Pretty Things,
H. Thieme,
Ohio Players,
Man Eating Sloth,
Ice-T,
Chris Corsano,
The Saints,
Hot Snakes,
Gabor Szabo,
Dawn Penn,
Country Teasers,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus.
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.