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 Barbados and from Bremen.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 organ 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 Echospace to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Porter Ricks. All the underground hits.
All Joy Division tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Half Japanese 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kaleidoscope record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swans,
The Seeds,
Crime,
Pole,
Clear Light,
Carl Craig,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Country Teasers,
Shuggie Otis,
Deadbeat,
Black Moon,
Colin Newman,
Lalann,
John Coltrane,
Ultra Naté,
KRS-One,
Reagan Youth,
Tim Buckley,
Rakim,
The Victims,
Pagans,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Electric Prunes,
The Searchers,
Newcleus,
Bill Near,
Soulsonic Force,
Funky Four + One,
Saccharine Trust,
Marc Almond,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Sun City Girls,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Grass Roots,
Arab on Radar,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Smoke,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Joe Finger,
Massinfluence,
Rotary Connection,
Bush Tetras,
Young Marble Giants,
Rufus Thomas,
Max Romeo,
The Doobie Brothers,
Kevin Saunderson,
Judy Mowatt,
Rhythm & Sound,
Barbara Tucker,
Second Layer,
the Fania All-Stars,
Mad Mike,
Leonard Cohen,
Aloha Tigers,
Bauhaus,
Lee Hazlewood,
Ice-T,
Minnie Riperton,
The Remains,
Andrew Hill,
UT,
Robert Hood,
Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division.
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.