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 Lebanon 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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Agitation Free to the grunge 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 Susan Cadogan. All the underground hits.
All The Buckinghams tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lindisfarne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 a harpsichord and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Janne Schatter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Brand Nubian,
Rotary Connection,
Tommy Roe,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Crooked Eye,
DJ Style,
Boogie Down Productions,
LL Cool J,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Swell Maps,
Laurel Aitken,
Masters at Work,
Hardrive,
The Black Dice,
Pierre Henry,
The Saints,
the Sonics,
Drive Like Jehu,
John Cale,
Black Sheep,
JFA,
Con Funk Shun,
Crispy Ambulance,
Donny Hathaway,
David McCallum,
Cheater Slicks,
Patti Smith,
Intrusion,
Zapp,
Chris & Cosey,
Wings,
This Heat,
Mary Jane Girls,
Wally Richardson,
Jimmy McGriff,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Doors,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Drexciya,
Suicide,
The Fall,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Delon & Dalcan,
Niagra,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Skriet,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Alphaville,
Jeru the Damaja,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Boz Scaggs,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Lee Hazlewood,
Von Mondo,
Kayak,
Throbbing Gristle,
Stockholm Monsters,
Sugar Minott,
Los Fastidios,
Cameo,
Ronnie Foster,
Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless.
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.