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 Tanzania 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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 The Fortunes 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 Scion. All the underground hits.
All Lalann tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pierre Henry 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grauzone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Pretty Things,
Smog,
Carl Craig,
Slick Rick,
Public Enemy,
Pere Ubu,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Stereo Dub,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
World's Most,
The Beau Brummels,
The Barracudas,
Ralphi Rosario,
David Axelrod,
Nico,
Bobby Sherman,
Pussy Galore,
Quantec,
Pole,
The Birthday Party,
Lalo Schifrin,
Rufus Thomas,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Bobby Womack,
Sexual Harrassment,
the Human League,
CMW,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Aaron Thompson,
Matthew Bourne,
Negative Approach,
Rakim,
Stiv Bators,
Franke,
Aural Exciters,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Wake,
Dorothy Ashby,
Echospace,
Pantytec,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
FM Einheit,
Kayak,
MDC,
The United States of America,
Soft Machine,
Tubeway Army,
Loose Ends,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Skatalites,
Absolute Body Control,
Nation of Ulysses,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Soul Sonic Force,
Derrick May,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Blues Magoos,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Soft Cell,
Dark Day,
Lightning Bolt,
Lower 48, Lower 48, Lower 48, Lower 48.
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.