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 Romania and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Gong to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Johnny Osbourne. All the underground hits.
All Angry Samoans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Trojans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Boz Scaggs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fad Gadget,
Isaac Hayes,
Marvin Gaye,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Dual Sessions,
Funky Four + One,
The Flesh Eaters,
Vainqueur,
Pylon,
The Monks,
Sound Behaviour,
Joensuu 1685,
Junior Murvin,
Adolescents,
Slick Rick,
Lindisfarne,
The Pop Group,
Black Bananas,
The Motions,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Los Fastidios,
Fugazi,
Ultravox,
Ken Boothe,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
the Swans,
Reuben Wilson,
Sixth Finger,
The Slackers,
The Martian,
Freddie Wadling,
The Move,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Leonard Cohen,
The Techniques,
Rhythm & Sound,
Joy Division,
the Slits,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Radio Birdman,
Kerrie Biddell,
Khruangbin,
Sun Ra,
Lalann,
Steve Hackett,
Bobby Sherman,
Drexciya,
Public Image Ltd.,
Deadbeat,
World's Most,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
John Lydon,
Ice-T,
David McCallum,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Television,
Gang of Four,
Severed Heads,
Wire,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Standells,
Franke,
Stetsasonic,
Jandek, Jandek, Jandek, Jandek.
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.