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 Cuba and from Lille.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 clarinet 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 Avey Tare 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 Barclay James Harvest. All the underground hits.
All The Flesh Eaters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Khruangbin 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Porter Ricks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gap Band,
Donny Hathaway,
Scientists,
New York Dolls,
Bauhaus,
Lalann,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
UT,
Theoretical Girls,
Altered Images,
Cameo,
E-Dancer,
Unrelated Segments,
Reuben Wilson,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Mr. Review,
Shuggie Otis,
The Beau Brummels,
The Alarm Clocks,
the Sonics,
Gichy Dan,
8 Eyed Spy,
Severed Heads,
Angry Samoans,
Lyres,
The Dead C,
FM Einheit,
Visage,
Sugar Minott,
Deepchord,
The Last Poets,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Sound Behaviour,
Boz Scaggs,
MC5,
The Fugs,
Symarip,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Hashim,
T. Rex,
Camberwell Now,
Toni Rubio,
The Human League,
Wolf Eyes,
DJ Style,
Kurtis Blow,
the Soft Cell,
Y Pants,
Skaos,
Charles Mingus,
Bootsy Collins,
Flamin' Groovies,
Donald Byrd,
Half Japanese,
Brass Construction,
Unwound,
Barclay James Harvest,
Black Sheep,
Jawbox,
The Wake,
Excepter,
The Modern Lovers,
Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia.
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.