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 Finland and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Man Eating Sloth to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Spandau Ballet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Eating Sloth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Porter Ricks 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?
Pharoah Sanders,
Groovy Waters,
B.T. Express,
Prince Buster,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Ornette Coleman,
Gang of Four,
The Slits,
Severed Heads,
Scan 7,
Ice-T,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Rod Modell,
Jawbox,
Cameo,
Malaria!,
Slick Rick,
Rosa Yemen,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Kinks,
Fluxion,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Moleskins,
Wally Richardson,
Subhumans,
Swell Maps,
Rekid,
LL Cool J,
DNA,
Reuben Wilson,
The Techniques,
Quando Quango,
Althea and Donna,
Sight & Sound,
Thompson Twins,
Chrome,
Swans,
Underground Resistance,
Schoolly D,
Lee Hazlewood,
Iggy Pop,
Bill Wells,
Arcadia,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Move,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Adolescents,
Black Bananas,
Amon Düül,
Alphaville,
Idris Muhammad,
The Fire Engines,
Arthur Verocai,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Camberwell Now,
Scrapy,
Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor.
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.