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 Cyprus and from Calgary.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 This Heat to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Underground Resistance. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Soft Cell record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sixth Finger record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Cure,
The Slackers,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Marcia Griffiths,
Idris Muhammad,
The Doobie Brothers,
Deakin,
B.T. Express,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Avey Tare,
Lou Reed,
The Five Americans,
T.S.O.L.,
Ohio Players,
Gang Gang Dance,
John Coltrane,
The Shadows of Knight,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Terrestrial Tones,
Negative Approach,
Model 500,
Robert Hood,
X-102,
the Sonics,
Alphaville,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Amon Düül II,
Colin Newman,
Roger Hodgson,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Echospace,
The Star Department,
Howard Jones,
Wolf Eyes,
Tubeway Army,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Angels of Light,
Public Enemy,
Bluetip,
Lightning Bolt,
ABC,
Byron Stingily,
Todd Rundgren,
The Modern Lovers,
Quando Quango,
Letta Mbulu,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Josef K,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Masters at Work,
Bill Near,
Wire,
Charles Mingus,
Cecil Taylor,
The Real Kids,
Albert Ayler,
Aswad,
The Monochrome Set,
Funkadelic,
Eric B and Rakim,
Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments, Unrelated Segments.
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.