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 Paraguay and from Beijing.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Mars 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 The Martian. All the underground hits.
All Brick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Smog 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warren Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Liliput,
Rotary Connection,
Prince Buster,
Toni Rubio,
Josef K,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Dirtbombs,
Ponytail,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
China Crisis,
ABBA,
Brothers Johnson,
Mad Mike,
Soulsonic Force,
Los Fastidios,
The Toasters,
Aswad,
The Music Machine,
Minny Pops,
The Smoke,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Wings,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Reuben Wilson,
Kenny Larkin,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Black Pus,
Pierre Henry,
Duran Duran,
The Techniques,
The Count Five,
Ice-T,
Icehouse,
Grauzone,
Lower 48,
Radiohead,
Ossler,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Johnny Clarke,
MDC,
The Alarm Clocks,
the Slits,
Chris & Cosey,
Jawbox,
Cybotron,
Roger Hodgson,
Slave,
Tom Boy,
Spandau Ballet,
Nico,
Glenn Branca,
Eric B and Rakim,
Y Pants,
Eli Mardock,
The Shadows of Knight,
Joyce Sims,
The Doobie Brothers,
Monolake, Monolake, Monolake, Monolake.
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.