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 Chile and from Lyon.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Pulsallama to the punk 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 Charles Mingus. All the underground hits.
All Jesper Dahlback tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Agitation Free record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a In Retrospect record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang of Four,
Todd Rundgren,
The Victims,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Mojo Men,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Cymande,
Newcleus,
John Holt,
The Selecter,
Alison Limerick,
Donny Hathaway,
Byron Stingily,
T.S.O.L.,
June of 44,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Massinfluence,
Minutemen,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Reuben Wilson,
The Motions,
Anthony Braxton,
Scientists,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Walker Brothers,
The Velvet Underground,
The Misunderstood,
Agent Orange,
The Red Krayola,
Nas,
Man Eating Sloth,
Connie Case,
Moss Icon,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Lou Christie,
Piero Umiliani,
Gang Green,
Sällskapet,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Howard Jones,
Goldenarms,
Alice Coltrane,
Mission of Burma,
Michelle Simonal,
Stockholm Monsters,
Judy Mowatt,
Pantytec,
The Grass Roots,
Qualms,
Visage,
Junior Murvin,
Lakeside,
Ultravox,
Fugazi,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Yaz,
U.S. Maple,
Motorama,
Eden Ahbez,
Nick Fraelich,
Lower 48,
The Happenings,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans.
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.