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 Equatorial Guinea and from Lagos.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Funky Four + One to the electroclash 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 Vainqueur. All the underground hits.
All Josef K tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jerry Gold Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Michelle Simonal,
Archie Shepp,
Drexciya,
Unrelated Segments,
Rufus Thomas,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Soft Machine,
Janne Schatter,
Accadde A,
L. Decosne,
Johnny Clarke,
Matthew Bourne,
Cheater Slicks,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Outsiders,
Vainqueur,
Chris Corsano,
Circle Jerks,
Barry Ungar,
Spandau Ballet,
Boz Scaggs,
the Normal,
Pharoah Sanders,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Warren Ellis,
Kayak,
ABC,
Nirvana,
Mark Hollis,
Derrick Morgan,
Alton Ellis,
Fat Boys,
The Saints,
Bobby Sherman,
The Divine Comedy,
Soulsonic Force,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Crooked Eye,
Cecil Taylor,
Mo-Dettes,
Alison Limerick,
Smog,
Magma,
Black Moon,
Deadbeat,
The Cowsills,
Lalo Schifrin,
Severed Heads,
Lightning Bolt,
Arab on Radar,
Anthony Braxton,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Smiths,
Sun Ra,
Ralphi Rosario,
Black Flag,
Technova,
Delon & Dalcan,
Nils Olav,
Sight & Sound,
Angry Samoans,
Easy Going,
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA.
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.