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 Belarus and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Supertramp to the grime 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 Ice-T. All the underground hits.
All Quadrant tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every MC5 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Symarip record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Blake Baxter,
Bobby Sherman,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Supertramp,
Pet Shop Boys,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Seeds,
Yazoo,
The Music Machine,
Dead Boys,
X-101,
Erasure,
Ralphi Rosario,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Shadows of Knight,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Smog,
Eddi Front,
Mark Hollis,
Clear Light,
Los Fastidios,
The Fall,
David Bowie,
Ultravox,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Babytalk,
Theoretical Girls,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Second Layer,
X-Ray Spex,
Eric Dolphy,
Matthew Halsall,
The Count Five,
Groovy Waters,
Charles Mingus,
Swell Maps,
8 Eyed Spy,
Pagans,
Mandrill,
Nils Olav,
The Buckinghams,
The Techniques,
Anakelly,
The Dirtbombs,
Juan Atkins,
Fad Gadget,
Thee Headcoats,
Harmonia,
the Human League,
Gerry Rafferty,
Joy Division,
The Gun Club,
ABC,
Rufus Thomas,
The Standells,
Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry.
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.