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 Luxembourg and from Lille.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Mars to the rock 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 Television Personalities. All the underground hits.
All Monks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Simply Red 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 an organ and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Grass Roots record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Cramps,
Donald Byrd,
Althea and Donna,
The Modern Lovers,
Rod Modell,
Animal Collective,
Mark Hollis,
Lucky Dragons,
David McCallum,
Gerry Rafferty,
Patti Smith,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Archie Shepp,
Donny Hathaway,
Easy Going,
the Swans,
Vladislav Delay,
Whodini,
Nils Olav,
Brand Nubian,
Ituana,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Bauhaus,
H. Thieme,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Move,
DNA,
Theoretical Girls,
Royal Trux,
Lebanon Hanover,
Maleditus Sound,
Yusef Lateef,
the Fania All-Stars,
Ronan,
E-Dancer,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Liliput,
Grandmaster Flash,
Black Sheep,
Bootsy Collins,
Eric Dolphy,
Monks,
Talk Talk,
Rakim,
Ponytail,
Bill Near,
The Durutti Column,
Sight & Sound,
Sällskapet,
The Sonics,
Amon Düül II,
Andrew Hill,
John Coltrane,
Junior Murvin,
Matthew Halsall,
The Slits,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Alice Coltrane,
Cymande,
The Moody Blues,
Lou Christie,
David Axelrod,
Funkadelic,
John Lydon,
The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band.
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.