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 Botswana and from Bologna.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Stetsasonic to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 The Neon Judgement. All the underground hits.
All Das Ding tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dark Day record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Sonics record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cameo,
Agitation Free,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Dirtbombs,
Aloha Tigers,
Alphaville,
Delon & Dalcan,
The American Breed,
Ultra Naté,
The Move,
Davy DMX,
Marcia Griffiths,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Radiopuhelimet,
Little Man,
Second Layer,
Shoche,
Piero Umiliani,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Basic Channel,
The Mummies,
Dawn Penn,
The Five Americans,
Patti Smith,
Lee Hazlewood,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Clear Light,
Erykah Badu,
Sonny Sharrock,
Rites of Spring,
Idris Muhammad,
Archie Shepp,
Fluxion,
Massinfluence,
Moss Icon,
Guru Guru,
Alison Limerick,
Mary Jane Girls,
The J.B.'s,
CMW,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Mars,
Royal Trux,
Arcadia,
UT,
Monks,
Ultimate Spinach,
Donald Byrd,
Traffic Nightmare,
Visage,
Interpol,
Harpers Bizarre,
Bobby Sherman,
Fugazi,
David McCallum,
Stockholm Monsters,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Names,
The Kinks,
the Human League,
Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood.
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.