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 Sierra Leone and from Bologna.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Tom Boy to the techno 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 Yaz. All the underground hits.
All The United States of America tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cybotron record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 808 and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blake Baxter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Babytalk,
Unwound,
Youth Brigade,
The Fire Engines,
Crooked Eye,
Cymande,
Desert Stars,
Max Romeo,
Talk Talk,
The Moody Blues,
Faraquet,
Young Marble Giants,
Subhumans,
Joe Finger,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Erasure,
Pierre Henry,
Roger Hodgson,
Panda Bear,
The Walker Brothers,
The Trojans,
The Blackbyrds,
Marmalade,
Schoolly D,
Erykah Badu,
MC5,
Massinfluence,
Kas Product,
Maurizio,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Charles Mingus,
A Certain Ratio,
Visage,
Ultravox,
Kerrie Biddell,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Glenn Branca,
Darondo,
Neu!,
Interpol,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Magazine,
Black Bananas,
Barbara Tucker,
Derrick Morgan,
The Five Americans,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Ice-T,
Donald Byrd,
Spandau Ballet,
Junior Murvin,
The Motions,
Amazonics,
Surgeon,
The Tremeloes,
Delta 5,
Blancmange,
The Young Rascals,
Blake Baxter,
the Slits,
Basic Channel,
Fear,
Derrick May, Derrick May, Derrick May, Derrick May.
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.