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 Algeria and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Gang Gang Dance to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Soft Machine. All the underground hits.
All Lonnie Liston Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Louis and Bebe Barron 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 a snare and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Surgeon,
Drive Like Jehu,
Mars,
Cameo,
Eden Ahbez,
Johnny Clarke,
Q and Not U,
Peter & Gordon,
The Vogues,
Warren Ellis,
Neu!,
Ituana,
Delon & Dalcan,
Soul II Soul,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Scott Walker,
UT,
Jeff Lynne,
Pierre Henry,
Terry Callier,
Schoolly D,
The Music Machine,
Gang Gang Dance,
Siglo XX,
Talk Talk,
Au Pairs,
Joey Negro,
U.S. Maple,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Excepter,
Zapp,
Simply Red,
OOIOO,
Arab on Radar,
Intrusion,
Popol Vuh,
The Moleskins,
The Last Poets,
Gastr Del Sol,
Smog,
Massinfluence,
The Litter,
Nils Olav,
Second Layer,
In Retrospect,
Livin' Joy,
Joe Smooth,
Suburban Knight,
Jeru the Damaja,
Adolescents,
Rakim,
Urselle,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Jeff Mills,
Oblivians,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Echospace,
Avey Tare,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Section 25,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx, Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx, Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx, Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx.
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.