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 Kenya and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 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 Minnie Riperton to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Human League. All the underground hits.
All Curtis Mayfield tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jimmy McGriff 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Excepter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ultra Naté,
Lungfish,
Swell Maps,
Archie Shepp,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Shoche,
Magazine,
Surgeon,
B.T. Express,
Aloha Tigers,
Crooked Eye,
Soul Sonic Force,
Massinfluence,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Fluxion,
Grandmaster Flash,
Idris Muhammad,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Toasters,
Khruangbin,
Deakin,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
CMW,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Big Daddy Kane,
a-ha,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Suicide,
Q65,
The Techniques,
Television Personalities,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Piero Umiliani,
The Happenings,
Erasure,
Franke,
The Cramps,
Qualms,
The Pop Group,
The Red Krayola,
The Barracudas,
Sister Nancy,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Amazonics,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Velvet Underground,
Fatback Band,
Ornette Coleman,
Circle Jerks,
Cameo,
The Electric Prunes,
The Cowsills,
H. Thieme,
The Doors,
Ituana,
FM Einheit,
Sonny Sharrock,
Carl Craig,
The Alarm Clocks,
Gang Gang Dance,
Pet Shop Boys,
Colin Newman,
Second Layer, Second Layer, Second Layer, Second Layer.
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.