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 Malawi and from Lagos.
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 1967 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 marimba 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 The Velvet Underground to the grime 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 Leonard Cohen. All the underground hits.
All the Human League tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scan 7 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Susan Cadogan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zapp,
Neil Young,
Arab on Radar,
Lebanon Hanover,
Crooked Eye,
Byron Stingily,
Bill Near,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Lower 48,
The Residents,
Ultimate Spinach,
Pole,
X-Ray Spex,
Procol Harum,
Rekid,
The Barracudas,
Electric Prunes,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Bauhaus,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Mission of Burma,
The Sonics,
Motorama,
Cecil Taylor,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Moss Icon,
Lou Reed,
Eddi Front,
Eden Ahbez,
The Golliwogs,
Howard Jones,
Q and Not U,
Cameo,
One Last Wish,
Radiohead,
Todd Terry,
The American Breed,
Darondo,
Cal Tjader,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Nils Olav,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
LL Cool J,
the Swans,
John Foxx,
Fad Gadget,
Saccharine Trust,
the Sonics,
Donny Hathaway,
World's Most,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Smog,
Echospace,
Massinfluence,
Ten City,
The Alarm Clocks,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Subhumans,
The Red Krayola,
Minnie Riperton,
Boredoms,
Grandmaster Flash,
Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman.
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.