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 Sierra Leone and from Hong Kong.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise 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 Shuggie Otis to the rock kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Gun Club. All the underground hits.
All Siglo XX tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soft Machine record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 spring reverb and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fear record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rites of Spring,
T. Rex,
Fear,
Index,
Pharoah Sanders,
Matthew Bourne,
Aswad,
The Cowsills,
Scientists,
Laurel Aitken,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Althea and Donna,
Alison Limerick,
Warsaw,
D'Angelo,
Marine Girls,
Royal Trux,
Soft Cell,
The Gap Band,
The Star Department,
Jeff Lynne,
The Evens,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Whodini,
Eddi Front,
Scott Walker,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Andrew Hill,
Depeche Mode,
Groovy Waters,
Anakelly,
Jacob Miller,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Vogues,
Oneida,
The Fire Engines,
Minor Threat,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Desert Stars,
Mars,
Stiv Bators,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Curtis Mayfield,
Dark Day,
Sun Ra,
Matthew Halsall,
Traffic Nightmare,
LL Cool J,
The Moleskins,
Motorama,
Chrome,
Minutemen,
Sex Pistols,
Fugazi,
Bush Tetras,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Model 500,
The Human League,
Magma,
Rotary Connection,
Tres Demented,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Agent Orange,
Neu!, Neu!, Neu!, Neu!.
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.