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 Burundi and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in 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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Pantaleimon to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Los Fastidios. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Young Marble Giants record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 sitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Move record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Rotary Connection,
the Sonics,
Soft Machine,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Chris Corsano,
Nils Olav,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Fugs,
Audionom,
Second Layer,
Crispy Ambulance,
Panda Bear,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Remains,
Stereo Dub,
Piero Umiliani,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Oblivians,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Judy Mowatt,
Babytalk,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Kaleidoscope,
China Crisis,
Spoonie Gee,
Black Sheep,
The Grass Roots,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Pharoah Sanders,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Rhythm & Sound,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
David McCallum,
the Association,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
F. McDonald,
The Last Poets,
T. Rex,
Neil Young,
The Beau Brummels,
Moby Grape,
Susan Cadogan,
Darondo,
Dorothy Ashby,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Sällskapet,
Brothers Johnson,
Dead Boys,
Scott Walker,
The Dirtbombs,
Pole,
Slave,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Joe Finger,
Roxette,
The United States of America,
Kenny Larkin,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Sun Ra,
Byron Stingily,
The Barracudas,
Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson.
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.