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 Italy and from Philadelphia.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 The Barracudas to the punk 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 Barclay James Harvest. All the underground hits.
All Aloha Tigers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brand Nubian record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New Age Steppers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Holt,
Lee Hazlewood,
Index,
Oblivians,
The Real Kids,
Banda Bassotti,
Fela Kuti,
New Age Steppers,
Alice Coltrane,
Chris & Cosey,
Ten City,
Black Moon,
Dennis Brown,
Skriet,
Second Layer,
Half Japanese,
The Smoke,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Malaria!,
The Skatalites,
Peter and Kerry,
Kerrie Biddell,
Gichy Dan,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Circle Jerks,
Eric Dolphy,
Amon Düül II,
The Golliwogs,
Young Marble Giants,
Mission of Burma,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Suburban Knight,
The Techniques,
Harmonia,
Jeff Lynne,
Albert Ayler,
Junior Murvin,
Thee Headcoats,
Make Up,
Yusef Lateef,
Amazonics,
The Slackers,
Howard Jones,
The Gun Club,
The Buckinghams,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Derrick Morgan,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Zero Boys,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Wake,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Happenings,
The Shadows of Knight,
Guru Guru,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Selecter,
Freddie Wadling,
The Slits,
Yellowson,
Laurel Aitken,
Chris Corsano,
The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers.
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.