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 Haiti and from Stockholm.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Marine Girls to the funk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Pulsallama. All the underground hits.
All Pagans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Chocolate Watch Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grandmaster Flash record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flamin' Groovies,
Sällskapet,
Minor Threat,
PIL,
Matthew Bourne,
Magazine,
Tres Demented,
the Soft Cell,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
E-Dancer,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Al Stewart,
The Dirtbombs,
The United States of America,
Joensuu 1685,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
David Bowie,
Max Romeo,
Joyce Sims,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Evens,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Ituana,
Essential Logic,
Marvin Gaye,
Man Parrish,
Ten City,
The Fall,
John Coltrane,
Minnie Riperton,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Drexciya,
The Young Rascals,
Laurel Aitken,
The Dave Clark Five,
Donny Hathaway,
Harpers Bizarre,
Barry Ungar,
Soul Sonic Force,
the Swans,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Mummies,
Altered Images,
Black Sheep,
Whodini,
Blake Baxter,
Ronnie Foster,
Terrestrial Tones,
cv313,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Mandrill,
Arcadia,
Sister Nancy,
Television,
Eric Dolphy,
Au Pairs,
Avey Tare,
Underground Resistance,
Idris Muhammad,
Marine Girls, Marine Girls, Marine Girls, Marine Girls.
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.