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 United States and from Philadelphia.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Nation of Ulysses to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Crime. All the underground hits.
All Crime tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Darondo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Charles Mingus record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slackers,
Scion,
Qualms,
Gang of Four,
Terrestrial Tones,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Marcia Griffiths,
the Swans,
Absolute Body Control,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Yusef Lateef,
Nick Fraelich,
The Fall,
Cal Tjader,
The Martian,
Bill Wells,
Zero Boys,
Mantronix,
The Dead C,
Technova,
Joensuu 1685,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Pet Shop Boys,
Joy Division,
The Happenings,
Youth Brigade,
Japan,
Franke,
Pole,
James White and The Blacks,
Cluster,
Eyeless In Gaza,
X-Ray Spex,
Gregory Isaacs,
Freddie Wadling,
Brand Nubian,
Lindisfarne,
Eurythmics,
Todd Terry,
Excepter,
Main Source,
Faust,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Scott Walker,
UT,
Surgeon,
Khruangbin,
Gerry Rafferty,
Sparks,
The Detroit Cobras,
Can,
Fatback Band,
Alton Ellis,
the Normal,
Boredoms,
Byron Stingily,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Modern Lovers,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Eric Copeland,
Sun City Girls,
Black Sheep, Black Sheep, Black Sheep, Black Sheep.
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.