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 Guatemala and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Dark Day to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Pulsallama. All the underground hits.
All Alphaville tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lonnie Liston Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Wake record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum 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?
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Schoolly D,
Joe Smooth,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sexual Harrassment,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Bang On A Can,
World's Most,
Rhythm & Sound,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Fortunes,
Q65,
Nils Olav,
Gregory Isaacs,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Jeff Mills,
Byron Stingily,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Easy Going,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Litter,
Dennis Brown,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Erykah Badu,
Mary Jane Girls,
Tim Buckley,
Das Ding,
Interpol,
John Holt,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Liliput,
Sister Nancy,
The Dave Clark Five,
Max Romeo,
Roy Ayers,
Bad Manners,
Organ,
Leonard Cohen,
Cheater Slicks,
Jerry's Kids,
Robert Hood,
Blancmange,
Ronan,
John Foxx,
Cluster,
Aloha Tigers,
Lower 48,
Alice Coltrane,
Throbbing Gristle,
Davy DMX,
Jeff Lynne,
Excepter,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Steve Hackett,
Hasil Adkins,
Marvin Gaye,
Prince Buster,
Lalo Schifrin,
Black Bananas,
L. Decosne,
Rapeman,
Ludus, Ludus, Ludus, Ludus.
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.