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 Tajikistan and from Beijing.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the marimba 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 Erykah Badu to the disco 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 Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade. All the underground hits.
All The Monochrome Set tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Deakin record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Michelle Simonal record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blake Baxter,
The Associates,
The Moleskins,
Lucky Dragons,
Crispian St. Peters,
Shuggie Otis,
Heaven 17,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Erasure,
The Mummies,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Remains,
Organ,
The Cure,
Excepter,
the Slits,
Gang Green,
Buzzcocks,
Lee Hazlewood,
Au Pairs,
The Fall,
Yazoo,
Bobby Sherman,
K-Klass,
The Walker Brothers,
Tubeway Army,
China Crisis,
Anakelly,
Jawbox,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Kevin Saunderson,
Whodini,
Harry Pussy,
X-101,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Negative Approach,
Pylon,
Patti Smith,
Agent Orange,
Tom Boy,
Davy DMX,
Rakim,
A Certain Ratio,
Brick,
The Slackers,
Neu!,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Gang Gang Dance,
Sex Pistols,
The Five Americans,
Crispy Ambulance,
Letta Mbulu,
Lebanon Hanover,
Boogie Down Productions,
Visage,
The Move,
Easy Going,
Franke,
Urselle,
This Heat,
Toni Rubio,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.