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 Ghana and from Jakarta.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Spoonie Gee to the grime 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 Selecter. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minutemen 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Louis and Bebe Barron record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Techniques,
Ituana,
Ponytail,
Trumans Water,
cv313,
The Martian,
Pharoah Sanders,
Bob Dylan,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Cal Tjader,
Toni Rubio,
Warsaw,
Sun City Girls,
The Shadows of Knight,
Cymande,
New Order,
The Electric Prunes,
Public Enemy,
David Axelrod,
Liliput,
Public Image Ltd.,
Japan,
The Pop Group,
Susan Cadogan,
Alton Ellis,
Joey Negro,
the Soft Cell,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Arcadia,
The Real Kids,
Ken Boothe,
These Immortal Souls,
Goldenarms,
Soul II Soul,
Intrusion,
Blake Baxter,
Anthony Braxton,
Kerrie Biddell,
Khruangbin,
Connie Case,
Absolute Body Control,
Marine Girls,
Gerry Rafferty,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Lucky Dragons,
Pussy Galore,
Skriet,
Max Romeo,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Residents,
Scratch Acid,
One Last Wish,
Depeche Mode,
Michelle Simonal,
FM Einheit,
Neu!,
Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment.
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.