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 San Marino and from Winnipeg.
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 1960 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Wally Richardson to the techno 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 Gil Scott Heron. All the underground hits.
All Dark Day tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sister Nancy 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Sugar Minott,
Mantronix,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Sound,
Arthur Verocai,
Wasted Youth,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Anthony Braxton,
Dawn Penn,
the Soft Cell,
Fat Boys,
X-102,
The Vogues,
Blossom Toes,
Scan 7,
Loose Ends,
Mark Hollis,
F. McDonald,
The Wake,
Warren Ellis,
Quadrant,
Moby Grape,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Smoke,
Eric B and Rakim,
Nirvana,
Roger Hodgson,
The Residents,
Carl Craig,
The Busters,
Pantaleimon,
Television,
The Kinks,
The Electric Prunes,
Fugazi,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Pagans,
U.S. Maple,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
CMW,
Soul II Soul,
the Fania All-Stars,
Soul Sonic Force,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The American Breed,
Gastr Del Sol,
Public Image Ltd.,
Jimmy McGriff,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Knickerbockers,
Gerry Rafferty,
New Age Steppers,
Mars,
Schoolly D,
X-101,
Alton Ellis,
Porter Ricks,
Bobby Hutcherson,
L. Decosne,
Sparks,
Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne.
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.