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 Benin and from Manchester.
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 1967 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Milan.
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 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 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 Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog to the disco 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 N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell. All the underground hits.
All Camouflage tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hoover 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Neon Judgement record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Beau Brummels,
Don Cherry,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
New York Dolls,
Neu!,
The Kinks,
The Fugs,
Graham Central Station,
Big Daddy Kane,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Crooked Eye,
Outsiders,
Joyce Sims,
Japan,
DJ Style,
Soul II Soul,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Television,
Make Up,
Mary Jane Girls,
Grandmaster Flash,
Todd Terry,
The Golliwogs,
Pantytec,
Joe Smooth,
Motorama,
Danielle Patucci,
Adolescents,
Robert Görl,
Heaven 17,
The Litter,
Suicide,
Throbbing Gristle,
Essential Logic,
Talk Talk,
Chrome,
Bush Tetras,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Derrick Morgan,
The J.B.'s,
David McCallum,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Ronnie Foster,
One Last Wish,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Black Dice,
Gong,
10cc,
Flipper,
Wasted Youth,
Kurtis Blow,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Pop Group,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Magma,
Sam Rivers,
Anakelly,
Unrelated Segments,
Eve St. Jones,
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.