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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Calgary.
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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 harpsichord 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 The Pop Group to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Johnny Clarke. All the underground hits.
All Bronski Beat tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Colin Newman 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 rhodes and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Alarm Clocks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
London Community Gospel Choir,
Ponytail,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Music Machine,
Audionom,
Boogie Down Productions,
Hot Snakes,
Hardrive,
Lungfish,
Deakin,
The Mojo Men,
Aural Exciters,
Ornette Coleman,
The Barracudas,
Metal Thangz,
Robert Wyatt,
One Last Wish,
Derrick May,
Janne Schatter,
Kevin Saunderson,
Jacob Miller,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
L. Decosne,
The Count Five,
Carl Craig,
Fatback Band,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Harry Pussy,
Deepchord,
Babytalk,
Marvin Gaye,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Real Kids,
Avey Tare,
The Slits,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Pierre Henry,
Danielle Patucci,
Crooked Eye,
Suicide,
Funkadelic,
the Slits,
Hasil Adkins,
Public Image Ltd.,
Laurel Aitken,
Bobby Byrd,
Spandau Ballet,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Robert Görl,
The Blues Magoos,
The Move,
Flash Fearless,
Jandek,
Roxette,
Essential Logic,
JFA,
The Standells,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Max Romeo,
X-101, X-101, X-101, X-101.
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.