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 Nauru and from Toronto.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Fear to the punk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Velvet Underground. All the underground hits.
All The Doors tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Zeros record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Youth Brigade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alton Ellis,
Morten Harket,
Organ,
Gil Scott Heron,
Minor Threat,
Wings,
World's Most,
Dave Gahan,
Robert Hood,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Red Krayola,
Bobby Womack,
Q65,
The Fire Engines,
The Vogues,
Ice-T,
The Modern Lovers,
Sällskapet,
Camberwell Now,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Skatalites,
Subhumans,
The Sound,
Motorama,
Unrelated Segments,
Nas,
Sexual Harrassment,
Blossom Toes,
the Swans,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Blues Magoos,
Stetsasonic,
Jeff Lynne,
Pylon,
Pagans,
Throbbing Gristle,
Crooked Eye,
Glambeats Corp.,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Eurythmics,
Second Layer,
Nico,
Quadrant,
Isaac Hayes,
Rhythm & Sound,
DJ Sneak,
The Invisible,
The Slits,
Con Funk Shun,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
EPMD,
Lucky Dragons,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Scan 7,
Moby Grape,
Fela Kuti,
Nation of Ulysses,
Radiohead,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Offenders,
Kevin Saunderson,
Hot Snakes,
Cymande, Cymande, Cymande, Cymande.
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.