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 Niger and from Beijing.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Bobby Hutcherson to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Ralphi Rosario. All the underground hits.
All Sam Rivers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hoover record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Stooges,
Monks,
Kurtis Blow,
Sight & Sound,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Depeche Mode,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Clear Light,
Eli Mardock,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Duran Duran,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Zeros,
Maleditus Sound,
Mark Hollis,
Swans,
Lou Reed,
Donny Hathaway,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Fall,
The Modern Lovers,
Fat Boys,
Faraquet,
Susan Cadogan,
CMW,
the Soft Cell,
Joy Division,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Ken Boothe,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Ultravox,
Big Daddy Kane,
Radio Birdman,
Alice Coltrane,
Radiopuhelimet,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Pierre Henry,
Johnny Osbourne,
These Immortal Souls,
Bill Wells,
The Golliwogs,
Magazine,
Cluster,
Pere Ubu,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Donald Byrd,
Scientists,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Raincoats,
E-Dancer,
Anthony Braxton,
Jacob Miller,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Slave,
the Germs,
Swell Maps,
Guru Guru,
Schoolly D,
Circle Jerks,
Grandmaster Flash,
Von Mondo, Von Mondo, Von Mondo, Von Mondo.
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.