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 Macedonia and from Jakarta.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Judy Mowatt to the grunge 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 The Star Department. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Sherman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Duran Duran record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jacques Brel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Sheep,
MC5,
Jacob Miller,
Rufus Thomas,
Loose Ends,
Japan,
Big Daddy Kane,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Kas Product,
Lalo Schifrin,
Thompson Twins,
Sexual Harrassment,
Outsiders,
Robert Wyatt,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Pretty Things,
Minutemen,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Divine Comedy,
Danielle Patucci,
Saccharine Trust,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Star Department,
Cameo,
Nils Olav,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Yazoo,
Ornette Coleman,
Bill Wells,
Byron Stingily,
Blancmange,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Idris Muhammad,
The Young Rascals,
Mission of Burma,
the Soft Cell,
Lakeside,
JFA,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Thee Headcoats,
Gregory Isaacs,
Ice-T,
Eve St. Jones,
Wally Richardson,
Agent Orange,
Erasure,
D'Angelo,
a-ha,
Oblivians,
Rosa Yemen,
Anthony Braxton,
John Coltrane,
Tommy Roe,
Colin Newman,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Cowsills,
Derrick Morgan,
Judy Mowatt,
The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds.
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.