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 Tunisia and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the güiro 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 World's Most to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Motorama. All the underground hits.
All Gang of Four tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nation of Ulysses record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 a 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Franke,
Jacques Brel,
The Durutti Column,
Thee Headcoats,
Harmonia,
Panda Bear,
Theoretical Girls,
Malaria!,
A Certain Ratio,
Gerry Rafferty,
Ronan,
Saccharine Trust,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Selecter,
Half Japanese,
Tommy Roe,
Blossom Toes,
Suicide,
Bootsy Collins,
The Misunderstood,
Alice Coltrane,
Glambeats Corp.,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Agent Orange,
Crispy Ambulance,
Lindisfarne,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Pop Group,
Frankie Knuckles,
Man Parrish,
Matthew Bourne,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Erykah Badu,
Eric Copeland,
The Barracudas,
In Retrospect,
Bobby Byrd,
Freddie Wadling,
Anakelly,
These Immortal Souls,
The Star Department,
Fatback Band,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
the Normal,
The Angels of Light,
The Dead C,
Laurel Aitken,
the Slits,
Popol Vuh,
the Bar-Kays,
Public Image Ltd.,
Aswad,
Pussy Galore,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Stereo Dub,
The Residents,
D'Angelo,
The Gladiators,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Tropical Tobacco,
Dennis Brown,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets.
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.