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 Cambodia and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 UT to the jazz 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 Essential Logic. All the underground hits.
All Oneida tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Simply Red record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Harpers Bizarre record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Derrick Morgan,
Loose Ends,
a-ha,
Todd Rundgren,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Charles Mingus,
Warsaw,
Lucky Dragons,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Sight & Sound,
Thee Headcoats,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Rapeman,
Tropical Tobacco,
Patti Smith,
Khruangbin,
Buzzcocks,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Johnny Clarke,
Jeff Mills,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Pretty Things,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Kurtis Blow,
Easy Going,
R.M.O.,
FM Einheit,
Black Pus,
Grauzone,
Jeru the Damaja,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Nik Kershaw,
Aswad,
Brand Nubian,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Bad Manners,
Black Moon,
Black Bananas,
Scrapy,
T. Rex,
Colin Newman,
Eve St. Jones,
Slave,
Agent Orange,
Cluster,
Smog,
The Kinks,
Bluetip,
Neu!,
Todd Terry,
Visage,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Martian,
The Human League,
The Wake,
Slick Rick,
Cal Tjader,
Section 25,
Eric B and Rakim,
Sandy B,
Depeche Mode,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail.
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.