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 Botswana and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the marimba 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 The Mummies 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 Pop Group. All the underground hits.
All Althea and Donna tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scrapy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 marimba and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Electric Prunes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Young Marble Giants,
Mary Jane Girls,
KRS-One,
The Divine Comedy,
Organ,
The Electric Prunes,
Albert Ayler,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Public Enemy,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Bad Manners,
Delta 5,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Mummies,
Moby Grape,
Delon & Dalcan,
Marcia Griffiths,
Josef K,
Minutemen,
Theoretical Girls,
Wasted Youth,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Lee Hazlewood,
Roxy Music,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
New Age Steppers,
Subhumans,
Adolescents,
Marc Almond,
The Slackers,
Sparks,
Iggy Pop,
Black Flag,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Last Poets,
Lightning Bolt,
The Invisible,
Alton Ellis,
the Human League,
Blossom Toes,
D'Angelo,
The Dirtbombs,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Marine Girls,
Camberwell Now,
Brand Nubian,
Roy Ayers,
Chris Corsano,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Henry Cow,
Robert Görl,
Fat Boys,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Flesh Eaters,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Martian,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Niagra,
Easy Going, Easy Going, Easy Going, Easy Going.
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.