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 Kenya 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 1967 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Lagos.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Joe Smooth 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 The Human League. All the underground hits.
All Dennis Brown tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Liaisons Dangereuses record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 chamberlin and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Pretty Things record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Skaos,
the Fania All-Stars,
Suicide,
Public Image Ltd.,
Sonic Youth,
10cc,
Khruangbin,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Soft Cell,
Curtis Mayfield,
Iggy Pop,
Colin Newman,
Altered Images,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Derrick May,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Intrusion,
the Sonics,
Jerry's Kids,
Barry Ungar,
Basic Channel,
The Monochrome Set,
Nirvana,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Black Flag,
The Pretty Things,
Los Fastidios,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Blossom Toes,
Vainqueur,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Scan 7,
The Barracudas,
The Misunderstood,
Marc Almond,
Eric Copeland,
Animal Collective,
Harmonia,
Urselle,
Fatback Band,
The Fortunes,
Depeche Mode,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The American Breed,
Joy Division,
Gerry Rafferty,
Nation of Ulysses,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Gregory Isaacs,
John Coltrane,
Rufus Thomas,
The Modern Lovers,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Radio Birdman,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Frankie Knuckles,
the Soft Cell,
Trumans Water,
A Certain Ratio,
Severed Heads,
The Smoke,
Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne.
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.