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 Mozambique and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 clarinet 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 Gabor Szabo to the funk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Eden Ahbez. All the underground hits.
All The Beau Brummels tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barbara Tucker record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Connie Case record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
ABC,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bronski Beat,
Oblivians,
X-Ray Spex,
Khruangbin,
Maleditus Sound,
Gang of Four,
Camouflage,
Fatback Band,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Rakim,
Man Eating Sloth,
Cybotron,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Terry Callier,
Tubeway Army,
Lightning Bolt,
The Cramps,
The Grass Roots,
The Motions,
Vainqueur,
David Axelrod,
Minutemen,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Funky Four + One,
Brass Construction,
The Gap Band,
Sam Rivers,
Easy Going,
Mad Mike,
Nick Fraelich,
Nils Olav,
Andrew Hill,
Crispian St. Peters,
Tom Boy,
Neu!,
Jawbox,
the Soft Cell,
Letta Mbulu,
Delta 5,
Ornette Coleman,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Cowsills,
Marshall Jefferson,
Roxette,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Durutti Column,
Joyce Sims,
Gang Starr,
Erasure,
The Fall,
The Young Rascals,
The Slackers,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Gladiators,
Scan 7,
Roger Hodgson,
Joensuu 1685,
Heaven 17,
Royal Trux,
Marmalade,
Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez.
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.