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 Samoa and from Johannesburg.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the marimba 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Half Japanese. All the underground hits.
All R.M.O. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pole record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alice Coltrane,
The Dead C,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Sun Ra,
Lalann,
Black Bananas,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Minor Threat,
Nas,
Sun City Girls,
The American Breed,
It's A Beautiful Day,
the Fania All-Stars,
Steve Hackett,
Y Pants,
Essential Logic,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Byron Stingily,
Can,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Grauzone,
Dead Boys,
Dorothy Ashby,
Godley & Creme,
Skriet,
Infiniti,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Babytalk,
Skaos,
Bad Manners,
Soul II Soul,
The Dirtbombs,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
the Germs,
Quadrant,
Thompson Twins,
Electric Prunes,
John Lydon,
Brick,
The Sound,
Rakim,
Underground Resistance,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Jeff Mills,
Spandau Ballet,
Urselle,
Fatback Band,
Gong,
Neu!,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
David Axelrod,
Arthur Verocai,
Juan Atkins,
Lower 48,
Nirvana,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Hashim,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Icehouse,
The Grass Roots,
Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion.
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.