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 Mali and from Taipei.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Barclay James Harvest to the crunk 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 U.S. Maple. All the underground hits.
All Tim Buckley tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eden Ahbez 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Suicide record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sun Ra,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Von Mondo,
Isaac Hayes,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Mo-Dettes,
The Gladiators,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Alice Coltrane,
The Sonics,
Boogie Down Productions,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Barry Ungar,
The Tremeloes,
Jimmy McGriff,
Dennis Brown,
Roxette,
Michelle Simonal,
Mantronix,
the Germs,
The Angels of Light,
Livin' Joy,
Dave Gahan,
Kurtis Blow,
The Searchers,
Section 25,
Altered Images,
The Smoke,
EPMD,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Drexciya,
X-101,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Jeru the Damaja,
Bluetip,
Jerry's Kids,
Albert Ayler,
Yusef Lateef,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Ossler,
Derrick Morgan,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Pet Shop Boys,
Electric Prunes,
Peter & Gordon,
Yaz,
Arcadia,
Cameo,
ABC,
Donny Hathaway,
Lalo Schifrin,
Swell Maps,
The Invisible,
Idris Muhammad,
Al Stewart,
Bill Wells,
The Kinks,
The Red Krayola,
The Walker Brothers,
Barclay James Harvest,
Kevin Saunderson,
Pole, Pole, Pole, Pole.
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.