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 Uganda and from Cairo.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Davy DMX to the dance 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 Gabor Szabo. All the underground hits.
All A Certain Ratio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vaughan Mason & Crew record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Smog record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Glenn Branca,
Lakeside,
Roy Ayers,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Blancmange,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Smoke,
The Dirtbombs,
The Smiths,
Swell Maps,
Jacob Miller,
Con Funk Shun,
The Raincoats,
Banda Bassotti,
The Dead C,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Peter & Gordon,
Robert Hood,
The Slits,
Harmonia,
Eurythmics,
Oblivians,
Judy Mowatt,
Lucky Dragons,
John Cale,
Faust,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Ludus,
cv313,
Brand Nubian,
The Residents,
Sight & Sound,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Deepchord,
Al Stewart,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Yaz,
Cheater Slicks,
John Lydon,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Tom Boy,
Roger Hodgson,
Bill Near,
Albert Ayler,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Eve St. Jones,
David Axelrod,
Gang Green,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
the Germs,
KRS-One,
Gregory Isaacs,
Sonny Sharrock,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Byron Stingily,
Eden Ahbez,
The Motions,
Clear Light,
H. Thieme,
Fat Boys,
Gabor Szabo, Gabor Szabo, Gabor Szabo, Gabor Szabo.
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.