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 Kenya and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the snare 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 Cecil Taylor to the rock 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 Derrick Morgan. All the underground hits.
All Stereo Dub tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crispy Ambulance record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Pop Group record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Trumans Water,
Kaleidoscope,
Essential Logic,
Pantaleimon,
Dark Day,
Tomorrow,
Vladislav Delay,
Desert Stars,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Pole,
Mission of Burma,
Bobby Sherman,
The Human League,
Moby Grape,
Roger Hodgson,
The Barracudas,
Gregory Isaacs,
Scientists,
Peter & Gordon,
Ohio Players,
Roxy Music,
The Shadows of Knight,
Alice Coltrane,
The Durutti Column,
Delon & Dalcan,
Mandrill,
Marvin Gaye,
Ten City,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Litter,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Marmalade,
Ituana,
Delta 5,
Don Cherry,
Gang of Four,
Oneida,
Hardrive,
Lalann,
The Sound,
Rhythm & Sound,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
New Age Steppers,
Minny Pops,
Brothers Johnson,
Idris Muhammad,
Erasure,
The Residents,
Harmonia,
Davy DMX,
Cymande,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Deadbeat,
The Last Poets,
Heaven 17,
Thompson Twins,
Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler.
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.