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 Zambia 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 Winnipeg and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Funky Four + One to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Heaven 17. All the underground hits.
All Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roy Ayers Ubiquity 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Neil Young & Crazy Horse record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Guru Guru,
Moby Grape,
Pantaleimon,
Liliput,
Spandau Ballet,
The Fall,
Smog,
the Normal,
John Holt,
Accadde A,
Pet Shop Boys,
Mars,
One Last Wish,
the Fania All-Stars,
Silicon Teens,
Yazoo,
Soft Machine,
Basic Channel,
Black Pus,
Tropical Tobacco,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Junior Murvin,
Buzzcocks,
Ornette Coleman,
Section 25,
Todd Rundgren,
Model 500,
Matthew Bourne,
the Sonics,
Sexual Harrassment,
Brass Construction,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Eric Copeland,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Angels of Light,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Quantec,
Marvin Gaye,
Delon & Dalcan,
Eurythmics,
Brothers Johnson,
The Real Kids,
John Coltrane,
Dark Day,
The Divine Comedy,
Neu!,
Crispian St. Peters,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Das Ding,
Neil Young,
Mark Hollis,
X-102,
Au Pairs,
Subhumans,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Thompson Twins,
The Remains,
The Blues Magoos,
Heaven 17,
The Motions,
Banda Bassotti,
Ossler, Ossler, Ossler, Ossler.
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.