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 South Sudan and from Spokane.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Carl Craig 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 X-Ray Spex. All the underground hits.
All Liliput tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Stooges record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gap Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
James White and The Blacks,
Nirvana,
Aaron Thompson,
Second Layer,
Johnny Osbourne,
Vladislav Delay,
Robert Wyatt,
Gang of Four,
Sixth Finger,
Soft Cell,
The Shadows of Knight,
Davy DMX,
The Gladiators,
Audionom,
Matthew Bourne,
Maurizio,
Ultravox,
John Cale,
Shuggie Otis,
Wolf Eyes,
The Skatalites,
Bronski Beat,
Nick Fraelich,
Simply Red,
Outsiders,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
the Sonics,
Agent Orange,
Slave,
Jimmy McGriff,
Electric Prunes,
Youth Brigade,
Metal Thangz,
Blancmange,
cv313,
Rufus Thomas,
Eddi Front,
The Cramps,
The Alarm Clocks,
Quantec,
Subhumans,
Marc Almond,
Altered Images,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Scrapy,
Chrome,
Magma,
Bobby Byrd,
The Young Rascals,
Pylon,
The Durutti Column,
Scott Walker,
Marine Girls,
Mandrill,
Graham Central Station,
Scientists,
Mo-Dettes,
Eden Ahbez,
Massinfluence,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor.
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.