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 Niger and from Lagos.
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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 John Coltrane to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Grass Roots. All the underground hits.
All the Bar-Kays tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Babytalk record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jacques Brel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Marmalade,
X-Ray Spex,
Graham Central Station,
Easy Going,
Crime,
Crispian St. Peters,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Star Department,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Max Romeo,
The Names,
B.T. Express,
Royal Trux,
The Grass Roots,
The Real Kids,
Jeff Lynne,
Lungfish,
Donald Byrd,
Freddie Wadling,
The United States of America,
Sällskapet,
FM Einheit,
the Sonics,
The Stooges,
the Bar-Kays,
Bootsy Collins,
Al Stewart,
Main Source,
Marcia Griffiths,
Section 25,
Nico,
Grauzone,
Sarah Menescal,
Buzzcocks,
Reuben Wilson,
Dorothy Ashby,
Slick Rick,
Cybotron,
Lalo Schifrin,
Magma,
Rekid,
Harry Pussy,
the Human League,
Beasts of Bourbon,
DNA,
Robert Wyatt,
Sonic Youth,
Howard Jones,
Gang of Four,
The Shadows of Knight,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Brand Nubian,
Nas,
Black Sheep,
Sexual Harrassment,
Soul II Soul,
The Cure,
Stiv Bators,
Sight & Sound,
The Sonics,
John Cale,
The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs.
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.