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 Honduras and from Toronto.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Bang On A Can to the funk 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 Brand Nubian. All the underground hits.
All Grauzone tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kurtis Blow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echo & the Bunnymen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radio Birdman,
Fluxion,
Index,
Idris Muhammad,
Pierre Henry,
Mark Hollis,
Davy DMX,
Toni Rubio,
The Residents,
CMW,
Barbara Tucker,
Althea and Donna,
the Germs,
The Evens,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Ornette Coleman,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Josef K,
Al Stewart,
Porter Ricks,
Yazoo,
The Count Five,
Ken Boothe,
Fad Gadget,
The Raincoats,
Slick Rick,
Erykah Badu,
Hardrive,
The Tremeloes,
The J.B.'s,
Delon & Dalcan,
Joey Negro,
New Age Steppers,
Gregory Isaacs,
Lucky Dragons,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Swans,
The Electric Prunes,
Kerrie Biddell,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Sam Rivers,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Brothers Johnson,
Boredoms,
Bad Manners,
Nation of Ulysses,
Black Moon,
X-Ray Spex,
Prince Buster,
The Human League,
Kerri Chandler,
Archie Shepp,
John Coltrane,
Alton Ellis,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Robert Wyatt,
Grauzone,
Ultra Naté,
One Last Wish,
Magma,
Jacob Miller,
The Names, The Names, The Names, The Names.
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.