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 Rwanda and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 London Community Gospel Choir to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 David Axelrod. All the underground hits.
All The Trojans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Skaos 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Wake record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Harry Pussy,
Cymande,
Newcleus,
Peter & Gordon,
The Invisible,
The Move,
Rakim,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
La Düsseldorf,
Rufus Thomas,
The Searchers,
Reagan Youth,
Little Man,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Godley & Creme,
Yusef Lateef,
Fear,
Dorothy Ashby,
Juan Atkins,
Khruangbin,
Kenny Larkin,
Mad Mike,
The Flesh Eaters,
Sound Behaviour,
Erasure,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
AZ,
Lucky Dragons,
the Germs,
The Smoke,
The United States of America,
Pulsallama,
Alphaville,
Delta 5,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Blossom Toes,
Bootsy Collins,
Reuben Wilson,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Vladislav Delay,
James White and The Blacks,
Section 25,
Eric B and Rakim,
Nirvana,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Lower 48,
Franke,
Sixth Finger,
Vainqueur,
Lou Reed,
Freddie Wadling,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Tomorrow,
Janne Schatter,
Bush Tetras,
Television Personalities,
Surgeon,
The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers.
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.