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 Sudan and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Sugar Minott to the techno 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 Alice Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All The Wake tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Raincoats record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Average White Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barbara Tucker,
Half Japanese,
Yellowson,
The Skatalites,
The Trojans,
Moby Grape,
Technova,
The Last Poets,
Crime,
Cecil Taylor,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
T.S.O.L.,
Todd Rundgren,
Nik Kershaw,
8 Eyed Spy,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Monochrome Set,
the Germs,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
48th St. Collective,
Theoretical Girls,
The Moody Blues,
Tears for Fears,
Laurel Aitken,
Silicon Teens,
Mars,
Unrelated Segments,
Bob Dylan,
Aloha Tigers,
Ten City,
Magazine,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Robert Hood,
Boredoms,
KRS-One,
the Association,
The Fortunes,
Eric Dolphy,
Supertramp,
the Human League,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Victims,
Althea and Donna,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Fugazi,
The Moleskins,
Fatback Band,
Sällskapet,
Youth Brigade,
Cal Tjader,
Moss Icon,
Minor Threat,
Drive Like Jehu,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Gories,
Ice-T,
Josef K,
Peter and Kerry,
Drexciya,
Ludus,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Rapeman,
Lalann, Lalann, Lalann, Lalann.
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.