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 Afghanistan and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 John Cale to the grunge 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 Godley & Creme. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Wake record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 a spring reverb and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mark Hollis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Smiths,
Robert Wyatt,
T.S.O.L.,
The Selecter,
New Age Steppers,
Alice Coltrane,
Kas Product,
UT,
Prince Buster,
Au Pairs,
Cymande,
Wire,
The Zeros,
Blossom Toes,
Surgeon,
Lou Reed,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Mojo Men,
Jacques Brel,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Ronnie Foster,
Massinfluence,
Marshall Jefferson,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Electric Prunes,
The Moody Blues,
Amon Düül II,
Sight & Sound,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Golliwogs,
The Offenders,
Half Japanese,
Brass Construction,
Crispian St. Peters,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Flipper,
Idris Muhammad,
Black Sheep,
John Holt,
Whodini,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Wings,
The Victims,
Pantaleimon,
Quantec,
Masters at Work,
Qualms,
This Heat,
Agent Orange,
Can,
The Black Dice,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Mummies,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Monochrome Set,
Youth Brigade,
Maurizio,
Metal Thangz,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Walker Brothers,
Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front.
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.