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 Grenada and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 sitar 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 Roy Ayers Ubiquity to the rap kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 The Peanut Butter Conspiracy. All the underground hits.
All Hasil Adkins tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Letta Mbulu record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Laurel Aitken record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord 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?
Ornette Coleman,
Vainqueur,
Joensuu 1685,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Flipper,
Sonny Sharrock,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Bang On A Can,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Scrapy,
Crash Course in Science,
Marcia Griffiths,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Lungfish,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Detroit Cobras,
John Foxx,
Hot Snakes,
Lucky Dragons,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Robert Wyatt,
Lakeside,
Sight & Sound,
Visage,
Godley & Creme,
In Retrospect,
Tim Buckley,
Bobby Byrd,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Tomorrow,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Bad Manners,
Scott Walker,
Chris & Cosey,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Neil Young,
10cc,
Q and Not U,
Faraquet,
Whodini,
Average White Band,
Brass Construction,
World's Most,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Metal Thangz,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Unwound,
David McCallum,
Yellowson,
This Heat,
Saccharine Trust,
Amon Düül II,
Accadde A,
Susan Cadogan,
Davy DMX,
Barbara Tucker,
Man Parrish,
Gang Starr, Gang Starr, Gang Starr, Gang Starr.
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.