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 Cape Verde and from London.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Bologna.
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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Althea and Donna to the grime 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Smog 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Doors record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Charles Mingus,
Lower 48,
Monks,
Icehouse,
Unrelated Segments,
Radiohead,
Wolf Eyes,
Symarip,
The Golliwogs,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Parry Music,
Yusef Lateef,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Evens,
Neil Young,
Todd Rundgren,
Soul II Soul,
Janne Schatter,
Gong,
The Invisible,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Bill Near,
Saccharine Trust,
June Days,
Spoonie Gee,
Boz Scaggs,
Ituana,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Moleskins,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Los Fastidios,
Vainqueur,
Blossom Toes,
Jandek,
Ultra Naté,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Mummies,
Ultimate Spinach,
AZ,
The Gladiators,
the Sonics,
Au Pairs,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Joe Finger,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Circle Jerks,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Human League,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Nas,
MDC,
Sister Nancy,
Infiniti,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Livin' Joy,
The Stooges,
Blake Baxter,
Eden Ahbez,
Johnny Clarke,
The Vogues, The Vogues, The Vogues, The Vogues.
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.