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 China and from Copenhagen.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Parry Music to the electroclash 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 Nation of Ulysses. All the underground hits.
All The Trojans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angry Samoans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 synthesizer and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Minny Pops record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Shuggie Otis,
Tropical Tobacco,
Ludus,
Danielle Patucci,
Second Layer,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Drexciya,
Mantronix,
Pierre Henry,
Neu!,
Brass Construction,
Malaria!,
In Retrospect,
Bobbi Humphrey,
ABC,
Black Pus,
MC5,
Warren Ellis,
Sound Behaviour,
Youth Brigade,
Organ,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Bush Tetras,
Technova,
Tres Demented,
The Martian,
Donny Hathaway,
Y Pants,
Sparks,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Jawbox,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Peter and Kerry,
Stiv Bators,
The Motions,
Erasure,
AZ,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Gabor Szabo,
The Zeros,
The Evens,
Pet Shop Boys,
Terrestrial Tones,
Dorothy Ashby,
Joey Negro,
Howard Jones,
Spandau Ballet,
Masters at Work,
The Buckinghams,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Black Flag,
Junior Murvin,
The Shadows of Knight,
Terry Callier,
The Pretty Things,
Todd Rundgren,
Anakelly,
Lower 48,
Jerry Gold Smith,
the Fania All-Stars,
Grauzone,
New York Dolls,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine, Major Organ And The Adding Machine, Major Organ And The Adding Machine, Major Organ And The Adding Machine.
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.