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 India and from Jakarta.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 The Music Machine to the rock 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 Eric Dolphy. All the underground hits.
All The Remains tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Residents record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 a rhodes and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jacob Miller record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ken Boothe,
Surgeon,
Sexual Harrassment,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Inner City,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Spoonie Gee,
Matthew Halsall,
Severed Heads,
Junior Murvin,
Scan 7,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lalann,
Technova,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
A Certain Ratio,
Eric Copeland,
Fluxion,
One Last Wish,
Agitation Free,
The Real Kids,
The Busters,
Loose Ends,
Boogie Down Productions,
MC5,
Robert Hood,
Japan,
David Bowie,
Derrick May,
New York Dolls,
H. Thieme,
DJ Sneak,
Erasure,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Rekid,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Warsaw,
Johnny Clarke,
The Barracudas,
Absolute Body Control,
The Toasters,
Das Ding,
Spandau Ballet,
Cal Tjader,
Kaleidoscope,
Brick,
Dead Boys,
Avey Tare,
Cameo,
Morten Harket,
Q65,
R.M.O.,
Pierre Henry,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Roxy Music,
Skarface,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Bob Dylan,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Scott Walker,
Rufus Thomas,
World's Most, World's Most, World's Most, World's Most.
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.