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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Alton Ellis to the crunk 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 Quadrant. All the underground hits.
All Rakim tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Derrick May record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Monolake,
Boz Scaggs,
The Names,
T.S.O.L.,
The Gories,
Gabor Szabo,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Colin Newman,
Freddie Wadling,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Janne Schatter,
David McCallum,
Livin' Joy,
Rosa Yemen,
Suicide,
The Alarm Clocks,
Country Teasers,
Young Marble Giants,
Ronnie Foster,
Duran Duran,
The United States of America,
Prince Buster,
Pet Shop Boys,
Mad Mike,
Jacob Miller,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Rites of Spring,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Gladiators,
KRS-One,
Q65,
Qualms,
Boogie Down Productions,
Hoover,
Hardrive,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Franke,
The Music Machine,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Mojo Men,
Leonard Cohen,
June Days,
Pantytec,
Make Up,
Skarface,
Agitation Free,
Black Pus,
Soft Machine,
The Smiths,
Scientists,
Mission of Burma,
Gong,
The Vogues,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Barclay James Harvest,
Lucky Dragons,
Fugazi,
Godley & Creme,
Matthew Halsall,
Deadbeat,
The Fire Engines,
Rapeman,
The Blues Magoos, The Blues Magoos, The Blues Magoos, The Blues Magoos.
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.