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 Monaco and from Manila.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Lizzy Mercier Descloux to the electroclash 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 Pussy Galore. All the underground hits.
All Johnny Clarke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Big Daddy Kane 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gian Franco Pienzio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Procol Harum,
Blancmange,
Camberwell Now,
Curtis Mayfield,
Guru Guru,
Delta 5,
Warsaw,
Roxy Music,
The Zeros,
Laurel Aitken,
Judy Mowatt,
The Doors,
Magma,
Sexual Harrassment,
Japan,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Blues Magoos,
Wings,
Bootsy Collins,
Jawbox,
Kas Product,
The Index,
The Music Machine,
the Association,
ABC,
R.M.O.,
Boogie Down Productions,
cv313,
The Monochrome Set,
Radiohead,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Public Image Ltd.,
Kayak,
Juan Atkins,
The Moleskins,
The Cramps,
Gong,
the Sonics,
Essential Logic,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Technova,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Godley & Creme,
Alice Coltrane,
The Happenings,
Outsiders,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Marvin Gaye,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Pet Shop Boys,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Blossom Toes,
The Fire Engines,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Prince Buster,
Sound Behaviour,
Lakeside,
Dawn Penn,
Boz Scaggs,
New Age Steppers,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Young Rascals,
Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance.
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.