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 Yemen and from Accra.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the snare 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 Darondo to the techno kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Donny Hathaway. All the underground hits.
All Unwound tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Walker Brothers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 an oboe and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Raincoats record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zero Boys,
Bad Manners,
Faust,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Al Stewart,
The New Christs,
Colin Newman,
Rufus Thomas,
Banda Bassotti,
Eddi Front,
Ten City,
CMW,
Toni Rubio,
Bush Tetras,
Girls At Our Best!,
Schoolly D,
Con Funk Shun,
Alton Ellis,
Sister Nancy,
The Searchers,
Bob Dylan,
Flash Fearless,
Babytalk,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Soft Machine,
Black Sheep,
Radiopuhelimet,
Hashim,
Beasts of Bourbon,
June Days,
Can,
Lindisfarne,
Sugar Minott,
Symarip,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Max Romeo,
K-Klass,
Gong,
The Leaves,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Q and Not U,
Howard Jones,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Echospace,
The Blackbyrds,
New Order,
The Martian,
Kerrie Biddell,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Tremeloes,
Hasil Adkins,
La Düsseldorf,
Ronan,
Yusef Lateef,
The Remains,
Bootsy Collins,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Buckinghams,
the Fania All-Stars,
Magma, Magma, Magma, Magma.
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.