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 Brunei and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
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 Shoche to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Country Teasers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Neu! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Wyatt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scientists,
Lower 48,
Amon Düül,
Marshall Jefferson,
Toni Rubio,
Pole,
Desert Stars,
Dawn Penn,
The Grass Roots,
The Fall,
David Axelrod,
The Knickerbockers,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fat Boys,
Pet Shop Boys,
Cluster,
Das Ding,
Bob Dylan,
Johnny Osbourne,
Ken Boothe,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Red Krayola,
X-102,
Lyres,
Matthew Halsall,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Tremeloes,
Eurythmics,
Electric Prunes,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Yazoo,
The Monochrome Set,
Kerrie Biddell,
Flipper,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Neu!,
Bad Manners,
Flash Fearless,
Simply Red,
Lindisfarne,
Patti Smith,
Andrew Hill,
Qualms,
Loose Ends,
Buzzcocks,
Sparks,
Fear,
Arcadia,
Arthur Verocai,
Althea and Donna,
Sister Nancy,
Johnny Clarke,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Happenings,
The Seeds,
Mandrill,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Erykah Badu,
Hashim, Hashim, Hashim, Hashim.
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.