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 Kyrgyzstan and from Johannesburg.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 marimba 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 Ultra Naté to the crunk 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 Blake Baxter. All the underground hits.
All Camberwell Now tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Velvet Underground 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bush Tetras record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Television Personalities,
Absolute Body Control,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
This Heat,
Sonic Youth,
Average White Band,
Rosa Yemen,
Royal Trux,
Nas,
Pierre Henry,
Kaleidoscope,
Cybotron,
Sound Behaviour,
Fat Boys,
Rotary Connection,
Soulsonic Force,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Sandy B,
Visage,
Terry Callier,
Aloha Tigers,
R.M.O.,
Laurel Aitken,
Rekid,
The Seeds,
Popol Vuh,
Fugazi,
Electric Prunes,
X-Ray Spex,
Motorama,
Lower 48,
Gichy Dan,
Bad Manners,
Flash Fearless,
Essential Logic,
Magma,
Country Teasers,
Nick Fraelich,
These Immortal Souls,
The Fire Engines,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Shoche,
Fela Kuti,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Dirtbombs,
Bobby Sherman,
Simply Red,
Henry Cow,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Grass Roots,
Arthur Verocai,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Peter and Kerry,
Ponytail,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Lyres,
Tears for Fears,
Bobby Byrd,
The Angels of Light,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sixth Finger,
The Sound, The Sound, The Sound, The Sound.
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.