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 Latvia and from Columbus.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 808 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 Gichy Dan to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Alton Ellis. All the underground hits.
All Iggy Pop tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Swans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The J.B.'s,
Alice Coltrane,
DNA,
OOIOO,
Brick,
The Barracudas,
Mandrill,
Soul II Soul,
The Leaves,
The Grass Roots,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Erasure,
Throbbing Gristle,
Sugar Minott,
Flash Fearless,
Con Funk Shun,
The Zeros,
Barclay James Harvest,
Slave,
Joe Finger,
Masters at Work,
The Pop Group,
Talk Talk,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Monolake,
the Fania All-Stars,
Gang Starr,
The Durutti Column,
Scan 7,
Deepchord,
The Dirtbombs,
New Age Steppers,
The Real Kids,
The Fortunes,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
New York Dolls,
John Lydon,
Terry Callier,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Toasters,
Skriet,
Crime,
Tomorrow,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Supertramp,
Model 500,
The Beau Brummels,
CMW,
Arcadia,
Sex Pistols,
Pagans,
Q and Not U,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
the Soft Cell,
Swans,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Barry Ungar,
U.S. Maple,
Tubeway Army,
Whodini,
the Swans, the Swans, the Swans, the Swans.
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.