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 Indonesia and from Taipei.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Eric B and Rakim to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Crime. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Pop Group record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 snare and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gong record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Can,
Archie Shepp,
The Toasters,
Nico,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Crispy Ambulance,
DJ Sneak,
Erasure,
Sight & Sound,
Lucky Dragons,
JFA,
Marine Girls,
Magazine,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Bobby Byrd,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Moody Blues,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Barbara Tucker,
Icehouse,
Loose Ends,
Carl Craig,
Jandek,
Peter and Kerry,
10cc,
The Last Poets,
Hoover,
Scan 7,
The Real Kids,
Television Personalities,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Q65,
Warsaw,
Bobby Womack,
Drexciya,
The Young Rascals,
Sexual Harrassment,
Tomorrow,
Steve Hackett,
ABBA,
The Golliwogs,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Jesper Dahlback,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Liliput,
In Retrospect,
The Gun Club,
The Pop Group,
Iggy Pop,
F. McDonald,
Leonard Cohen,
Godley & Creme,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Slave,
Donald Byrd,
The Residents,
The Kinks,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Pantytec,
Index,
Robert Wyatt,
Organ,
Los Fastidios,
The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set.
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.