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 Cape Verde and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Second Layer to the funk 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 Boogie Down Productions. All the underground hits.
All Manfred Mann's Earth Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barbara Tucker record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Malaria! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flash Fearless,
The Monochrome Set,
The Gories,
Depeche Mode,
Joensuu 1685,
Ossler,
The Motions,
Gregory Isaacs,
Cymande,
Throbbing Gristle,
Nation of Ulysses,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Wally Richardson,
Jerry's Kids,
the Human League,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Warsaw,
Los Fastidios,
Hot Snakes,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Echospace,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Wolf Eyes,
the Normal,
The Last Poets,
David McCallum,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Youth Brigade,
Pagans,
Half Japanese,
The Detroit Cobras,
Supertramp,
Robert Hood,
Andrew Hill,
The Count Five,
Ronan,
Sound Behaviour,
The Black Dice,
Danielle Patucci,
Crooked Eye,
The Gap Band,
Slave,
Lightning Bolt,
Gerry Rafferty,
Wasted Youth,
John Holt,
Matthew Halsall,
Skarface,
the Association,
Black Bananas,
Bauhaus,
X-101,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Buzzcocks,
Avey Tare,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Hardrive,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Pretty Things,
Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman.
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.