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 South Africa and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Standells to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Raincoats. All the underground hits.
All Glenn Branca tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Easy Going record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Boz Scaggs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Hardrive,
Spoonie Gee,
The Fire Engines,
Ken Boothe,
Eve St. Jones,
Ultra Naté,
Spandau Ballet,
Neu!,
Monks,
Infiniti,
The Cure,
Unrelated Segments,
Blancmange,
Yaz,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Marc Almond,
Dennis Brown,
Max Romeo,
Arcadia,
Bootsy Collins,
The Last Poets,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Velvet Underground,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Fortunes,
Camberwell Now,
Idris Muhammad,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Pop Group,
Marshall Jefferson,
Joey Negro,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Martian,
Cecil Taylor,
Icehouse,
Charles Mingus,
The Kinks,
Aural Exciters,
La Düsseldorf,
Tubeway Army,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Royal Trux,
The Toasters,
ABBA,
Archie Shepp,
Eurythmics,
The Gories,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Barbara Tucker,
Amon Düül II,
The Blackbyrds,
Joyce Sims,
Gerry Rafferty,
Skriet,
Matthew Halsall,
Soft Machine,
Gregory Isaacs,
Aswad,
Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk.
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.