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 Kenya and from Lagos.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Boogie Down Productions to the grime 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 Excepter. All the underground hits.
All John Lydon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Neon Judgement record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Half Japanese record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Walker Brothers,
Bobby Womack,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Charles Mingus,
The Music Machine,
The Tremeloes,
Sexual Harrassment,
Simply Red,
The Doors,
Marcia Griffiths,
Swell Maps,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Inner City,
The Cowsills,
Neil Young,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Lou Christie,
Little Man,
Joe Smooth,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Lakeside,
Avey Tare,
Big Daddy Kane,
Goldenarms,
Judy Mowatt,
Janne Schatter,
Amon Düül,
Mo-Dettes,
Tres Demented,
Ituana,
Isaac Hayes,
Byron Stingily,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Reagan Youth,
Negative Approach,
Derrick Morgan,
Rotary Connection,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Trojans,
Soft Cell,
Clear Light,
Todd Terry,
Arab on Radar,
MC5,
Leonard Cohen,
Sugar Minott,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Howard Jones,
The Knickerbockers,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Half Japanese,
Robert Görl,
Dennis Brown,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Agent Orange,
ABC,
Graham Central Station,
Gong,
Peter and Kerry,
Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre.
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.