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 Zambia and from Sao Paulo.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Neil Young to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Anakelly. All the underground hits.
All Isaac Hayes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every DNA record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
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 The Zeros record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gories,
Marine Girls,
China Crisis,
Country Teasers,
Arthur Verocai,
Moebius,
Cybotron,
Cameo,
Electric Prunes,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Index,
Lou Christie,
Fela Kuti,
The Detroit Cobras,
Bluetip,
The Monochrome Set,
Rod Modell,
Erasure,
Funkadelic,
Altered Images,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Angry Samoans,
Chris & Cosey,
Camberwell Now,
Kaleidoscope,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
T. Rex,
Lee Hazlewood,
Vainqueur,
Pantaleimon,
Maleditus Sound,
Barbara Tucker,
Gabor Szabo,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Idris Muhammad,
Ralphi Rosario,
Das Ding,
Ossler,
MDC,
Oneida,
The Monks,
Faraquet,
Porter Ricks,
Sex Pistols,
Visage,
David McCallum,
The Modern Lovers,
the Normal,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Rites of Spring,
The New Christs,
Harmonia,
The Trojans,
Robert Wyatt,
Little Man,
Traffic Nightmare,
Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott, Sugar Minott.
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.