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 Togo and from Shanghai.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 John Foxx to the grime 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 Blancmange. All the underground hits.
All Outsiders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Harpers Bizarre 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Reuben Wilson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Donald Byrd,
The Happenings,
Make Up,
Byron Stingily,
Marvin Gaye,
Spandau Ballet,
The Trojans,
The Pop Group,
Can,
Rod Modell,
Essential Logic,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
MDC,
The Fall,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Eve St. Jones,
Whodini,
the Association,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Piero Umiliani,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Kurtis Blow,
The Pretty Things,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Delon & Dalcan,
Mo-Dettes,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Slick Rick,
Amon Düül II,
Dennis Brown,
Hasil Adkins,
Tropical Tobacco,
Toni Rubio,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
These Immortal Souls,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Quantec,
The Moody Blues,
Magma,
Glenn Branca,
Joy Division,
The Electric Prunes,
Faraquet,
Thee Headcoats,
Joyce Sims,
La Düsseldorf,
The Mummies,
Traffic Nightmare,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Lyres,
Lalann,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Ronnie Foster,
Surgeon,
Los Fastidios,
Royal Trux,
Clear Light,
Sound Behaviour,
New Order, New Order, New Order, New Order.
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.