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 Korea North and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Jakarta.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Barrington Levy to the dance 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 Darondo. All the underground hits.
All Loose Ends tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Donald Byrd 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Skatalites record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
R.M.O.,
Deadbeat,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Birthday Party,
The Five Americans,
Sex Pistols,
Lebanon Hanover,
Panda Bear,
Pantaleimon,
Brass Construction,
Sparks,
Man Eating Sloth,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Black Dice,
Q65,
Duran Duran,
Scion,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Fall,
The Divine Comedy,
Quando Quango,
Ohio Players,
Bizarre Inc.,
Crime,
James White and The Blacks,
Prince Buster,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
K-Klass,
KRS-One,
Masters at Work,
The Zeros,
Scan 7,
The Buckinghams,
Faraquet,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
China Crisis,
Gang of Four,
Alton Ellis,
Bobby Sherman,
PIL,
Los Fastidios,
Charles Mingus,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Ultravox,
Easy Going,
Maurizio,
This Heat,
Kevin Saunderson,
Echospace,
Ronan,
Laurel Aitken,
Procol Harum,
Shoche,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Second Layer,
The Happenings,
John Coltrane,
Althea and Donna,
Joe Finger,
Roxy Music,
Reagan Youth,
Cluster,
The Associates, The Associates, The Associates, The Associates.
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.