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 Cuba and from Shanghai.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Shanghai.
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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the theremin 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 Lucky Dragons to the crunk 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 Los Fastidios. All the underground hits.
All Kenny Larkin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alphaville 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jimmy McGriff,
Bluetip,
L. Decosne,
The Modern Lovers,
Suicide,
Tommy Roe,
Angry Samoans,
The Evens,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Fela Kuti,
Roxette,
Model 500,
Lebanon Hanover,
Yaz,
Throbbing Gristle,
Connie Case,
Terrestrial Tones,
New Order,
Curtis Mayfield,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The New Christs,
Visage,
Flash Fearless,
Howard Jones,
Barclay James Harvest,
Anakelly,
Circle Jerks,
Marine Girls,
Eric Copeland,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Delta 5,
The Gories,
the Association,
China Crisis,
Jandek,
Jawbox,
New Age Steppers,
EPMD,
Peter & Gordon,
Black Pus,
Boz Scaggs,
Mo-Dettes,
Scientists,
The Techniques,
ABC,
Lower 48,
Dead Boys,
Parry Music,
Ten City,
Kerri Chandler,
One Last Wish,
La Düsseldorf,
The Last Poets,
Slave,
Eddi Front,
Rod Modell,
Ralphi Rosario,
Matthew Halsall,
The Alarm Clocks,
Bush Tetras,
Dorothy Ashby,
Siglo XX,
Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants.
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.