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 Suriname and from Accra.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 808 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 Ten City to the rap kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Cabaret Voltaire. All the underground hits.
All Duran Duran tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang on a Can All-Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fall record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Quadrant,
Lightning Bolt,
Hasil Adkins,
Underground Resistance,
Wasted Youth,
Soft Cell,
U.S. Maple,
Pylon,
The Cure,
Nirvana,
Groovy Waters,
Sixth Finger,
Gabor Szabo,
Motorama,
Youth Brigade,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Eric Dolphy,
Main Source,
OOIOO,
The Associates,
Lucky Dragons,
Cymande,
The Monks,
Livin' Joy,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Terry Callier,
Subhumans,
Sparks,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Rufus Thomas,
Make Up,
Faraquet,
The American Breed,
Goldenarms,
Arcadia,
The Zeros,
The Real Kids,
Marmalade,
Lungfish,
Delon & Dalcan,
Ohio Players,
Soulsonic Force,
The Gories,
The New Christs,
Lakeside,
Sister Nancy,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Parry Music,
Cluster,
Patti Smith,
Deadbeat,
Adolescents,
FM Einheit,
ABC,
The Electric Prunes,
T.S.O.L.,
Crime,
Ten City,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Susan Cadogan, Susan Cadogan, Susan Cadogan, Susan Cadogan.
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.