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 Cameroon and from Spokane.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 güiro 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 Intrusion to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Shadows of Knight. All the underground hits.
All Aaron Thompson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fatback Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Minutemen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-102,
One Last Wish,
La Düsseldorf,
Joy Division,
Moss Icon,
The Trojans,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Eddi Front,
In Retrospect,
Brick,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Television Personalities,
Bad Manners,
the Soft Cell,
The Blues Magoos,
Youth Brigade,
Connie Case,
The Wake,
Warsaw,
The Smoke,
Tim Buckley,
Carl Craig,
Gong,
ABC,
Delon & Dalcan,
Nation of Ulysses,
H. Thieme,
Throbbing Gristle,
Patti Smith,
Avey Tare,
Tears for Fears,
Funkadelic,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Mary Jane Girls,
Kurtis Blow,
Idris Muhammad,
the Normal,
The Stooges,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Raincoats,
Nils Olav,
Suicide,
Marc Almond,
Can,
Lalo Schifrin,
Lou Christie,
The Pretty Things,
Funky Four + One,
Judy Mowatt,
Liliput,
Harmonia,
Stereo Dub,
Neil Young,
Eric B and Rakim,
Popol Vuh,
Scion,
Marmalade,
D'Angelo,
Ice-T,
Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown, Dennis Brown.
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.