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 Portugal and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in 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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the guitar 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 Bang On A Can to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Soul II Soul. All the underground hits.
All Barclay James Harvest tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angels of Light & Akron/Family 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Letta Mbulu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Eurythmics,
UT,
Minnie Riperton,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Stetsasonic,
Jeff Mills,
Deakin,
Chris & Cosey,
Lalann,
The Litter,
Wally Richardson,
Dennis Brown,
The Angels of Light,
Grandmaster Flash,
Ronnie Foster,
Pulsallama,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Television,
a-ha,
Dead Boys,
Rekid,
Jeru the Damaja,
Public Enemy,
Sandy B,
Trumans Water,
Jeff Lynne,
Crispian St. Peters,
the Normal,
Black Bananas,
Heaven 17,
Kool Moe Dee,
Radiohead,
Schoolly D,
Mary Jane Girls,
Roy Ayers,
New York Dolls,
John Coltrane,
James White and The Blacks,
Arcadia,
Drexciya,
Basic Channel,
Desert Stars,
Soulsonic Force,
Roxette,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Nick Fraelich,
Yaz,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Evens,
X-101,
Organ,
Massinfluence,
Althea and Donna,
The Count Five,
Cymande,
Delta 5,
The Kinks,
Niagra,
Severed Heads, Severed Heads, Severed Heads, Severed Heads.
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.