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 Samoa and from Cairo.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Harpers Bizarre to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 In Retrospect. All the underground hits.
All Boredoms tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sugar Minott 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a John Holt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Henry Cow,
The Golliwogs,
Bob Dylan,
Cybotron,
the Normal,
Jeru the Damaja,
Royal Trux,
Todd Terry,
Yellowson,
The Music Machine,
Procol Harum,
The Five Americans,
The Moody Blues,
Cecil Taylor,
La Düsseldorf,
Yusef Lateef,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Cal Tjader,
Subhumans,
Surgeon,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
DNA,
Radiohead,
The Doobie Brothers,
EPMD,
Liliput,
Lyres,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Mummies,
The Black Dice,
These Immortal Souls,
Spoonie Gee,
Severed Heads,
Joey Negro,
Gabor Szabo,
Pharoah Sanders,
Black Pus,
John Coltrane,
Loose Ends,
The Sound,
The Cowsills,
Lucky Dragons,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Dave Clark Five,
Soul II Soul,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Matthew Bourne,
Television Personalities,
Absolute Body Control,
DJ Style,
Heaven 17,
Lungfish,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Dawn Penn,
Tropical Tobacco,
Quando Quango,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Brand Nubian,
The Last Poets,
Eric Dolphy, Eric Dolphy, Eric Dolphy, Eric Dolphy.
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.