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 Nauru and from Lagos.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 theremin 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 Zapp to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Jawbox. All the underground hits.
All Eve St. Jones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Modern Lovers 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeff Lynne record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Wake,
China Crisis,
The Buckinghams,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Cowsills,
Dead Boys,
The Move,
Sound Behaviour,
Nick Fraelich,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Absolute Body Control,
Camberwell Now,
Joyce Sims,
Smog,
New Age Steppers,
Schoolly D,
Pet Shop Boys,
Dennis Brown,
Marcia Griffiths,
Skaos,
Marshall Jefferson,
New York Dolls,
Fluxion,
The Zeros,
Hashim,
Laurel Aitken,
Flash Fearless,
Sam Rivers,
Alton Ellis,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Lightning Bolt,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Mojo Men,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Stereo Dub,
Gang of Four,
Brothers Johnson,
Albert Ayler,
Mars,
The Human League,
Whodini,
The Fire Engines,
Ice-T,
Alphaville,
Avey Tare,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Khruangbin,
The United States of America,
MC5,
Silicon Teens,
Alice Coltrane,
Soft Machine,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Roxy Music,
Suburban Knight,
Alison Limerick,
The Skatalites,
Maurizio,
Lower 48,
Talk Talk,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott.
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.