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 Ivory Coast and from Shanghai.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 güiro 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 Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra 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 Infiniti. All the underground hits.
All Erykah Badu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scott Walker 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a D'Angelo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Matthew Bourne,
Kenny Larkin,
Public Image Ltd.,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Scott Walker,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Qualms,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Tom Boy,
June Days,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Divine Comedy,
Organ,
The Fall,
Alphaville,
Iggy Pop,
Siglo XX,
Henry Cow,
Porter Ricks,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Hot Snakes,
Inner City,
The Residents,
Ohio Players,
Don Cherry,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Goldenarms,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Easy Going,
Rites of Spring,
Bad Manners,
Leonard Cohen,
Minny Pops,
Panda Bear,
Kool Moe Dee,
Bob Dylan,
Sun Ra,
Pierre Henry,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Average White Band,
Wire,
Moebius,
Dark Day,
Alice Coltrane,
Ken Boothe,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Pantytec,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Groovy Waters,
Sugar Minott,
Scan 7,
Anthony Braxton,
Sound Behaviour,
David McCallum,
The Monks,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Bobby Sherman,
James White and The Blacks,
Slick Rick, Slick Rick, Slick Rick, Slick Rick.
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.