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 Ghana and from Mumbai.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Cecil Taylor to the punk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Gong. All the underground hits.
All Organ tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every David McCallum record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Golliwogs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
DJ Sneak,
Severed Heads,
Nik Kershaw,
Lungfish,
Cybotron,
the Swans,
The Human League,
Alison Limerick,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Patti Smith,
Eric Dolphy,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Soft Cell,
L. Decosne,
Kas Product,
Archie Shepp,
Nick Fraelich,
The Stooges,
Kerri Chandler,
Soul Sonic Force,
Ronan,
Arab on Radar,
Pere Ubu,
Oblivians,
Jesper Dahlback,
Aaron Thompson,
Pantytec,
Unwound,
The Fugs,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Dave Gahan,
Skarface,
Johnny Osbourne,
Fat Boys,
Section 25,
Kayak,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Joyce Sims,
The Kinks,
Marine Girls,
The Standells,
Mo-Dettes,
Average White Band,
Bobby Womack,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Joe Finger,
The Slits,
Los Fastidios,
Lalo Schifrin,
John Coltrane,
Basic Channel,
The Invisible,
Rapeman,
Quantec,
Duran Duran,
Television,
John Holt,
Rosa Yemen,
Byron Stingily,
Ronnie Foster,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Selecter,
EPMD,
Gichy Dan, Gichy Dan, Gichy Dan, Gichy Dan.
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.