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 St Kitts & Nevis and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Minny Pops to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Smog. All the underground hits.
All Bobbi Humphrey tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang of Four 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Talk Talk record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Absolute Body Control,
Visage,
The Knickerbockers,
Buzzcocks,
Peter and Kerry,
Yusef Lateef,
Pagans,
Sun City Girls,
Donny Hathaway,
Sight & Sound,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Standells,
Scrapy,
Brick,
Dawn Penn,
Jerry's Kids,
Oneida,
OOIOO,
the Human League,
Joyce Sims,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Gun Club,
Silicon Teens,
Fatback Band,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Searchers,
The Detroit Cobras,
Mantronix,
Smog,
Magazine,
Avey Tare,
D'Angelo,
Nik Kershaw,
Lungfish,
Bobby Sherman,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Leaves,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Royal Trux,
Johnny Osbourne,
The American Breed,
MDC,
Archie Shepp,
Urselle,
Barbara Tucker,
Banda Bassotti,
E-Dancer,
Alphaville,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Kurtis Blow,
Morten Harket,
Soft Machine,
Unwound,
Eric B and Rakim,
Das Ding,
Al Stewart,
The Sonics,
Masters at Work,
Donald Byrd,
Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia.
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.