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 Namibia and from Manila.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the marimba 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 The Fall to the rap kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Amazonics. All the underground hits.
All Matthew Halsall tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Magma record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a In Retrospect record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Cal Tjader,
Pole,
Chris & Cosey,
Television,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Fugs,
Bronski Beat,
The Human League,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Excepter,
The Techniques,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Sun City Girls,
Frankie Knuckles,
Blancmange,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Little Man,
David Bowie,
Vainqueur,
Ossler,
Prince Buster,
Pantytec,
Aural Exciters,
Graham Central Station,
Guru Guru,
Tom Boy,
John Holt,
Max Romeo,
KRS-One,
Delon & Dalcan,
Lebanon Hanover,
Hashim,
The Residents,
The Stooges,
The Index,
The Electric Prunes,
Sun Ra,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Sonics,
Juan Atkins,
Ten City,
The Offenders,
Chrome,
The Moleskins,
Andrew Hill,
Television Personalities,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Yusef Lateef,
Con Funk Shun,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Pretty Things,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Gladiators,
Glambeats Corp.,
Supertramp,
Warsaw,
Adolescents,
Peter and Kerry,
Sound Behaviour,
Yazoo,
Qualms,
Cluster, Cluster, Cluster, Cluster.
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.