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 Turkey and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron 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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the snare 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 Charles Mingus to the rap kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 a-ha. All the underground hits.
All Trumans Water tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Dave Clark Five 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Patti Smith record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ornette Coleman,
Sonic Youth,
Sight & Sound,
Second Layer,
Black Moon,
The Gories,
Royal Trux,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Move,
Nico,
Jimmy McGriff,
Cecil Taylor,
Ken Boothe,
This Heat,
Outsiders,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Ralphi Rosario,
In Retrospect,
The Fugs,
Swans,
Radiohead,
Letta Mbulu,
The Grass Roots,
Duran Duran,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Fire Engines,
Sun City Girls,
Bill Wells,
Marmalade,
Chris & Cosey,
the Soft Cell,
The Gladiators,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Sixth Finger,
X-102,
Fatback Band,
Soul II Soul,
R.M.O.,
Crime,
the Sonics,
Mission of Burma,
The New Christs,
The Associates,
Ituana,
MDC,
Bill Near,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Terry Callier,
Ten City,
Drexciya,
Faraquet,
Pulsallama,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Depeche Mode,
The Count Five,
Robert Wyatt,
Mars,
The Smoke,
Cheater Slicks,
Tubeway Army,
Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen.
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.