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 Liechtenstein and from Portland.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Fat Boys to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Boz Scaggs. All the underground hits.
All Von Mondo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Outsiders record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 a mellotron and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hashim 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?
Public Image Ltd.,
Althea and Donna,
the Germs,
Silicon Teens,
Sandy B,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Spandau Ballet,
Ponytail,
Cal Tjader,
Gregory Isaacs,
Dennis Brown,
Juan Atkins,
Y Pants,
ABC,
The Zeros,
The Monochrome Set,
The Moleskins,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Los Fastidios,
Patti Smith,
the Bar-Kays,
Make Up,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Blossom Toes,
Crispian St. Peters,
Brothers Johnson,
Chris Corsano,
Jeff Lynne,
The Last Poets,
Barbara Tucker,
The Buckinghams,
Lower 48,
Sound Behaviour,
Negative Approach,
Rites of Spring,
Echospace,
Crash Course in Science,
Newcleus,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Quantec,
Quadrant,
A Certain Ratio,
The Star Department,
Saccharine Trust,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Durutti Column,
Thee Headcoats,
Kenny Larkin,
Fugazi,
Metal Thangz,
Sister Nancy,
Kas Product,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Ice-T,
Sun City Girls,
Wolf Eyes,
The Golliwogs, The Golliwogs, The Golliwogs, The Golliwogs.
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.