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 Vanuatu and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 The Invisible to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Rapeman. All the underground hits.
All Pierre Henry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Isaac Hayes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an organ and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barrington Levy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Big Daddy Kane,
Todd Rundgren,
Marine Girls,
Maleditus Sound,
New Order,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Grauzone,
David Axelrod,
Severed Heads,
Theoretical Girls,
Nik Kershaw,
K-Klass,
Deakin,
Moebius,
Basic Channel,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
48th St. Collective,
Bobby Hutcherson,
New Age Steppers,
Ultravox,
Eli Mardock,
Grey Daturas,
The Alarm Clocks,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Ituana,
Scratch Acid,
Pagans,
Sarah Menescal,
Radio Birdman,
Dark Day,
Archie Shepp,
R.M.O.,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Bill Near,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Maurizio,
Banda Bassotti,
The Zeros,
The Cowsills,
Amazonics,
Fad Gadget,
Marcia Griffiths,
Donald Byrd,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sex Pistols,
Connie Case,
Kerrie Biddell,
Y Pants,
The Techniques,
X-Ray Spex,
Dennis Brown,
The Mummies,
Bill Wells,
Kas Product,
Tom Boy,
Little Man,
The Barracudas,
Peter and Kerry,
New York Dolls,
X-101,
Crime, Crime, Crime, Crime.
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.