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 Mauritius and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 marimba 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 Boogie Down Productions to the dance kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Mary Jane Girls. All the underground hits.
All Spandau Ballet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mission of Burma record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 a spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeff Lynne,
Bill Wells,
the Slits,
Zero Boys,
Cal Tjader,
PIL,
Black Bananas,
Marmalade,
Agitation Free,
Yusef Lateef,
Derrick Morgan,
Gil Scott Heron,
Dead Boys,
Marvin Gaye,
Drexciya,
AZ,
Swans,
The Smiths,
The Dirtbombs,
Albert Ayler,
Glambeats Corp.,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Mad Mike,
Jacob Miller,
Pharoah Sanders,
Andrew Hill,
The Modern Lovers,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Fuzztones,
Index,
Eden Ahbez,
Flash Fearless,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Maurizio,
Robert Görl,
The Standells,
Eve St. Jones,
Wally Richardson,
Quando Quango,
The Remains,
Sam Rivers,
Jacques Brel,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Inner City,
The J.B.'s,
The Wake,
Susan Cadogan,
The Music Machine,
Judy Mowatt,
Aaron Thompson,
JFA,
Prince Buster,
Ludus,
Soft Machine,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Franke,
Lower 48,
John Foxx,
Johnny Osbourne,
Howard Jones, Howard Jones, Howard Jones, Howard Jones.
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.