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 Fiji and from Glasgow.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the snare 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 Rod Modell to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Mighty Diamonds. All the underground hits.
All Lafayette Afro Rock Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flamin' Groovies 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Quando Quango record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Sonics,
New York Dolls,
The New Christs,
Gichy Dan,
The Remains,
Ultimate Spinach,
Public Image Ltd.,
Dawn Penn,
Tim Buckley,
Piero Umiliani,
The Cure,
Oblivians,
Bizarre Inc.,
Warsaw,
Flamin' Groovies,
Interpol,
Alton Ellis,
Fear,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Divine Comedy,
Popol Vuh,
Al Stewart,
The Durutti Column,
Soft Cell,
Wasted Youth,
Glenn Branca,
Tubeway Army,
Johnny Clarke,
Joe Finger,
Maleditus Sound,
Roxy Music,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Von Mondo,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Trumans Water,
The Stooges,
In Retrospect,
The Detroit Cobras,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Liliput,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
K-Klass,
Technova,
Stockholm Monsters,
Au Pairs,
Essential Logic,
The Invisible,
Todd Terry,
Metal Thangz,
Scientists,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
the Association,
Mission of Burma,
Desert Stars,
The Blues Magoos,
Goldenarms,
The Alarm Clocks,
Grauzone,
LL Cool J,
Henry Cow,
Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd.
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.