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 Latvia and from Stockholm.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Jandek to the rap 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 Johnny Clarke. All the underground hits.
All Joe Finger tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eurythmics 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 chamberlin and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Last Poets,
Minnie Riperton,
David Axelrod,
June of 44,
Idris Muhammad,
Todd Terry,
Pulsallama,
Model 500,
the Swans,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
F. McDonald,
Albert Ayler,
Sonic Youth,
The United States of America,
Siglo XX,
Piero Umiliani,
Robert Görl,
Talk Talk,
Grey Daturas,
Scrapy,
Franke,
Nation of Ulysses,
Joyce Sims,
Man Eating Sloth,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Bobby Sherman,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Fugs,
Underground Resistance,
Metal Thangz,
Curtis Mayfield,
Stiv Bators,
The Golliwogs,
The Residents,
Traffic Nightmare,
Shoche,
Malaria!,
Kevin Saunderson,
Brand Nubian,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Wolf Eyes,
Radiopuhelimet,
Easy Going,
David Bowie,
Main Source,
Ultra Naté,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Monochrome Set,
Shuggie Otis,
Cal Tjader,
Amon Düül II,
The Zeros,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
JFA,
Isaac Hayes,
The Associates,
The Invisible,
Neu!,
The Dave Clark Five,
ABC, ABC, ABC, ABC.
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.