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 Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 mellotron 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 Accadde A to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Nation of Ulysses. All the underground hits.
All Underground Resistance tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sonny Sharrock record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Clarke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Charles Mingus,
Q65,
Swans,
Matthew Halsall,
Nico,
Das Ding,
Freddie Wadling,
Blossom Toes,
John Foxx,
Eric Dolphy,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Carl Craig,
UT,
Jeru the Damaja,
Niagra,
Tres Demented,
Kenny Larkin,
Neu!,
Ultravox,
Camberwell Now,
Leonard Cohen,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Section 25,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Sight & Sound,
Crash Course in Science,
Soft Machine,
Frankie Knuckles,
Adolescents,
Erykah Badu,
Brick,
Buzzcocks,
Godley & Creme,
Jeff Lynne,
48th St. Collective,
Mark Hollis,
ABBA,
The Knickerbockers,
Sandy B,
PIL,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Soft Cell,
Sly & The Family Stone,
AZ,
New Order,
Can,
Piero Umiliani,
Radio Birdman,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Gap Band,
Wire,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Throbbing Gristle,
Danielle Patucci,
Second Layer,
Index,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Bronski Beat,
Al Stewart, Al Stewart, Al Stewart, Al Stewart.
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.