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 Salvador.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Lindisfarne to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Alice Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All Man Eating Sloth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quando Quango record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Red Lorry Yellow Lorry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Prince Buster,
Public Enemy,
Danielle Patucci,
The Fortunes,
Excepter,
Johnny Clarke,
Gang Green,
PIL,
Nils Olav,
Japan,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Absolute Body Control,
Tres Demented,
Fear,
Sun Ra,
The Kinks,
Joensuu 1685,
Rosa Yemen,
Erykah Badu,
The Toasters,
John Holt,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Deepchord,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Moby Grape,
Deadbeat,
Terry Callier,
Oblivians,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Juan Atkins,
Glenn Branca,
Robert Hood,
Mission of Burma,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Jerry's Kids,
The Standells,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Leaves,
Blossom Toes,
Mad Mike,
David McCallum,
Swell Maps,
Cybotron,
Rakim,
Con Funk Shun,
Ken Boothe,
Brand Nubian,
MC5,
David Axelrod,
The Gories,
Chrome,
Underground Resistance,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Blancmange,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Desert Stars,
The Electric Prunes,
X-102,
Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin.
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.