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 Zimbabwe and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Agitation Free. All the underground hits.
All Notorious Big And Bone Thugs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marvin Gaye 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Glenn Branca record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Letta Mbulu,
Sam Rivers,
John Foxx,
Eli Mardock,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Goldenarms,
Kaleidoscope,
The Smiths,
Derrick Morgan,
John Cale,
Erykah Badu,
Hardrive,
Bang On A Can,
Public Enemy,
Vladislav Delay,
Radiohead,
The Fortunes,
Amon Düül,
Tommy Roe,
Fugazi,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Happenings,
Dave Gahan,
Visage,
June Days,
Nik Kershaw,
Flamin' Groovies,
Yellowson,
Pylon,
Marine Girls,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Ultimate Spinach,
Second Layer,
LL Cool J,
Duran Duran,
Alice Coltrane,
Scientists,
The Durutti Column,
The Fall,
Malaria!,
The Music Machine,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Monochrome Set,
Ultravox,
Ronnie Foster,
U.S. Maple,
Tom Boy,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Peter & Gordon,
Sound Behaviour,
The Birthday Party,
the Fania All-Stars,
Lungfish,
Cybotron,
Ohio Players,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Zeros,
Pagans,
Althea and Donna,
The United States of America,
Soulsonic Force,
Lebanon Hanover,
Animal Collective, Animal Collective, Animal Collective, Animal Collective.
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.