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 Yemen and from Bremen.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 linndrum 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 Inner City to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Nico. All the underground hits.
All Bob Dylan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Idris Muhammad record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Heaven 17 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Unwound,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Nation of Ulysses,
Drexciya,
Porter Ricks,
Lightning Bolt,
Brothers Johnson,
Leonard Cohen,
Al Stewart,
These Immortal Souls,
The Sonics,
Joyce Sims,
Sun City Girls,
The Red Krayola,
Gang of Four,
Dave Gahan,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Roy Ayers,
The Angels of Light,
DJ Style,
Delon & Dalcan,
Vladislav Delay,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Trojans,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Pylon,
The Flesh Eaters,
Zero Boys,
Marvin Gaye,
The Pop Group,
Soulsonic Force,
KRS-One,
Zapp,
The Invisible,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Moss Icon,
Althea and Donna,
The Detroit Cobras,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Nick Fraelich,
Guru Guru,
Half Japanese,
Dorothy Ashby,
This Heat,
Lucky Dragons,
Sex Pistols,
Tubeway Army,
Sparks,
Livin' Joy,
Wasted Youth,
Frankie Knuckles,
Swell Maps,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Black Sheep,
Pole,
Big Daddy Kane,
Bobby Sherman,
The J.B.'s,
Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman, Colin Newman.
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.