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 Cameroon and from Bologna.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Make Up to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Fall. All the underground hits.
All Aswad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kaleidoscope record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fort Wilson Riot record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James White and The Blacks,
Sarah Menescal,
The Pop Group,
Howard Jones,
Suicide,
Altered Images,
Don Cherry,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Fela Kuti,
Guru Guru,
D'Angelo,
Pulsallama,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
David Axelrod,
Jeff Mills,
Ossler,
Lebanon Hanover,
Country Teasers,
the Human League,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Hardrive,
The Monks,
The Smiths,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Alton Ellis,
MDC,
The Black Dice,
Faraquet,
DNA,
The Fuzztones,
Public Enemy,
The Mummies,
Dual Sessions,
Mr. Review,
The New Christs,
Harmonia,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Music Machine,
Audionom,
Arthur Verocai,
U.S. Maple,
Lakeside,
Scott Walker,
Lower 48,
Blossom Toes,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Grey Daturas,
Joyce Sims,
Flipper,
Fat Boys,
Cameo,
Max Romeo,
Soulsonic Force,
Unwound,
Davy DMX,
Pharoah Sanders,
Shuggie Otis,
Nation of Ulysses,
In Retrospect,
The Remains, The Remains, The Remains, The Remains.
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.