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 the UAE and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Bang On A Can 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 Fat Boys. All the underground hits.
All Babytalk tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kango’s Stein Massive record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 808 and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tom Boy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Technova,
Anthony Braxton,
Barbara Tucker,
Davy DMX,
Arcadia,
Pylon,
Unwound,
Sex Pistols,
The Real Kids,
Mary Jane Girls,
Mark Hollis,
Jeru the Damaja,
Bootsy Collins,
Letta Mbulu,
R.M.O.,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Johnny Osbourne,
Blossom Toes,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Matthew Bourne,
Aural Exciters,
Excepter,
The Skatalites,
Brass Construction,
The Evens,
The Doors,
Nas,
Eli Mardock,
Hardrive,
Gastr Del Sol,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Average White Band,
Neu!,
Connie Case,
Ossler,
Fear,
cv313,
the Sonics,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Blues Magoos,
Black Bananas,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Surgeon,
Country Teasers,
James White and The Blacks,
Rufus Thomas,
Reuben Wilson,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Reagan Youth,
Make Up,
JFA,
China Crisis,
Pole,
Soulsonic Force,
The Count Five,
Dawn Penn,
Model 500,
Fifty Foot Hose, Fifty Foot Hose, Fifty Foot Hose, Fifty Foot Hose.
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.