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 the UAE and from Copenhagen.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 theremin 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 David Axelrod 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 Sexual Harrassment. All the underground hits.
All Moby Grape tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gabor Szabo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 rhodes and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Angels of Light record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Public Enemy,
Tubeway Army,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Outsiders,
Alphaville,
Sunsets and Hearts,
10cc,
Juan Atkins,
The Black Dice,
Henry Cow,
EPMD,
Khruangbin,
Newcleus,
Intrusion,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Residents,
Dark Day,
The Leaves,
The Kinks,
The Techniques,
The Skatalites,
Rufus Thomas,
Dorothy Ashby,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Pantytec,
Maleditus Sound,
The Move,
Brick,
the Human League,
Agitation Free,
Gregory Isaacs,
Q and Not U,
Surgeon,
Roger Hodgson,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Funky Four + One,
Sonic Youth,
Jacob Miller,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Mo-Dettes,
Audionom,
Procol Harum,
The Grass Roots,
The Gap Band,
The Misunderstood,
The Beau Brummels,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Fortunes,
Laurel Aitken,
Joensuu 1685,
The Red Krayola,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Toni Rubio,
Isaac Hayes,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Babytalk,
Accadde A,
Masters at Work,
The Divine Comedy,
Black Pus,
Niagra,
Shoche, Shoche, Shoche, Shoche.
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.