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 Liberia and from Shanghai.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the guitar 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 Arab on Radar to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 James White and The Blacks. All the underground hits.
All Ralphi Rosario tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Seeds record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joensuu 1685 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ituana,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Faraquet,
Minny Pops,
Sister Nancy,
Tommy Roe,
The Last Poets,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Scan 7,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Five Americans,
ABBA,
EPMD,
Wings,
Television,
Popol Vuh,
The Angels of Light,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Vainqueur,
Maleditus Sound,
Moss Icon,
Brothers Johnson,
Swell Maps,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
OOIOO,
Groovy Waters,
Quadrant,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Index,
The Moleskins,
The Pop Group,
La Düsseldorf,
The Music Machine,
Khruangbin,
Aural Exciters,
John Cale,
DJ Style,
Smog,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Harmonia,
Glambeats Corp.,
PIL,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Jandek,
Goldenarms,
Zero Boys,
F. McDonald,
Black Moon,
Jeff Lynne,
Soul Sonic Force,
Max Romeo,
U.S. Maple,
Underground Resistance,
Alphaville,
Bobby Womack,
The Dead C,
Boogie Down Productions,
Sam Rivers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Soulsonic Force,
Sun Ra,
the Sonics,
Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs.
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.