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 Tuvalu and from Jakarta.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 Robert Palmer 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 Amon Düül II to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Fatback Band. All the underground hits.
All Terry Callier tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yazoo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines 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?
Dual Sessions,
Crash Course in Science,
The Searchers,
The Detroit Cobras,
L. Decosne,
Crooked Eye,
Parry Music,
John Foxx,
The Smiths,
John Lydon,
Basic Channel,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Hasil Adkins,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bobby Sherman,
Bluetip,
Soul II Soul,
Jerry's Kids,
Brick,
Duran Duran,
Brand Nubian,
The Electric Prunes,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Q65,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Real Kids,
The Fire Engines,
David Axelrod,
David Bowie,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Man Eating Sloth,
Funky Four + One,
Severed Heads,
Joy Division,
Guru Guru,
The Leaves,
Juan Atkins,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Henry Cow,
The Evens,
The Gun Club,
Marmalade,
Bobby Byrd,
Magma,
Prince Buster,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Soulsonic Force,
Metal Thangz,
Section 25,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Moby Grape,
Lower 48,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Maleditus Sound,
Michelle Simonal,
Vladislav Delay,
Marvin Gaye,
The Tremeloes,
The Fuzztones,
Supertramp,
Sister Nancy,
Rotary Connection,
The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues.
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.