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 El Salvador and from Winnipeg.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Bologna.
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 harpsichord 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 Faust to the electroclash 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 Cheater Slicks. All the underground hits.
All The Men They Couldn't Hang tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sonny Sharrock record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hashim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ronnie Foster,
Mary Jane Girls,
Vainqueur,
Joe Smooth,
Cybotron,
Robert Wyatt,
The Offenders,
Zapp,
Graham Central Station,
Schoolly D,
kango's stein massive,
The Slackers,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Yazoo,
UT,
Sex Pistols,
The Happenings,
X-Ray Spex,
Q and Not U,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Seeds,
Scion,
Todd Terry,
Banda Bassotti,
Television Personalities,
Ponytail,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Pulsallama,
Visage,
Lightning Bolt,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Kinks,
June of 44,
Freddie Wadling,
Alice Coltrane,
Camouflage,
Masters at Work,
Piero Umiliani,
The Sonics,
DJ Style,
The Knickerbockers,
World's Most,
Swell Maps,
The Evens,
Gang Green,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Jacob Miller,
Siglo XX,
Donny Hathaway,
Loose Ends,
Von Mondo,
Sister Nancy,
Intrusion,
Unrelated Segments,
Arcadia,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Neu!,
David Bowie,
La Düsseldorf,
Marcia Griffiths,
Lakeside,
Cluster,
The Toasters, The Toasters, The Toasters, The Toasters.
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.