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 Somalia and from Bremen.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Accra.
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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Gong to the electroclash 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 The Smoke. All the underground hits.
All New Age Steppers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Faust record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 mellotron and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lonnie Liston Smith record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Neil Young,
Scratch Acid,
The Doors,
Half Japanese,
Moby Grape,
The Alarm Clocks,
Mad Mike,
The Red Krayola,
Bizarre Inc.,
X-Ray Spex,
The Beau Brummels,
Ituana,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Young Rascals,
Minnie Riperton,
Khruangbin,
UT,
The Electric Prunes,
Gabor Szabo,
Patti Smith,
Swell Maps,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Suburban Knight,
The Golliwogs,
Q and Not U,
Essential Logic,
Blake Baxter,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Victims,
Joe Smooth,
Ornette Coleman,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Sister Nancy,
Ronnie Foster,
The Blues Magoos,
Joyce Sims,
Glambeats Corp.,
Janne Schatter,
Soulsonic Force,
The Skatalites,
The Move,
Soul Sonic Force,
Sandy B,
Inner City,
Porter Ricks,
Todd Rundgren,
the Germs,
Pantytec,
Nas,
New Order,
T. Rex,
Soft Machine,
Smog,
JFA,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Surgeon,
LL Cool J,
Mr. Review,
Flipper,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Massinfluence,
Alton Ellis,
Delta 5,
Organ, Organ, Organ, Organ.
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.