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 Latvia and from Mumbai.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Tehran.
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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the linndrum 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 Sun Ra to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Section 25. All the underground hits.
All Cybotron tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dawn Penn 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cymande record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Selecter,
The Fuzztones,
Pulsallama,
Fatback Band,
Jawbox,
The Dead C,
Terry Callier,
The Fugs,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Neon Judgement,
Mantronix,
Zapp,
Quadrant,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Black Pus,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Golliwogs,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Index,
D'Angelo,
Bluetip,
The Music Machine,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Model 500,
Gil Scott Heron,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Lou Reed,
Pierre Henry,
Mandrill,
Big Daddy Kane,
Brass Construction,
John Lydon,
Man Parrish,
Main Source,
Anthony Braxton,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Barracudas,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Khruangbin,
Can,
Oblivians,
The Tremeloes,
Massinfluence,
Second Layer,
Pole,
Sun Ra,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Last Poets,
Aural Exciters,
Cheater Slicks,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
A Certain Ratio,
Scion,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Unrelated Segments,
Excepter,
Little Man, Little Man, Little Man, Little Man.
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.