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 Malta and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Easy Going to the rock kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 American Breed. All the underground hits.
All Cecil Taylor tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Terry Callier record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fatback Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lucky Dragons,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Trojans,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Moby Grape,
Swell Maps,
The Red Krayola,
Zapp,
Altered Images,
Reuben Wilson,
The Vogues,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Dirtbombs,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Robert Wyatt,
Hashim,
Procol Harum,
ABBA,
The Busters,
Lakeside,
Godley & Creme,
Erasure,
Rakim,
The Sisters of Mercy,
MDC,
Sound Behaviour,
Dead Boys,
MC5,
Man Parrish,
CMW,
Todd Rundgren,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Johnny Clarke,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Skaos,
Public Enemy,
U.S. Maple,
The Techniques,
The Velvet Underground,
Rosa Yemen,
Althea and Donna,
Pulsallama,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Blackbyrds,
Eve St. Jones,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Shuggie Otis,
Symarip,
Mo-Dettes,
The Evens,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Nik Kershaw,
Albert Ayler,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Unrelated Segments,
The Move,
Soul II Soul,
Piero Umiliani, Piero Umiliani, Piero Umiliani, Piero Umiliani.
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.