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 Gambia and from Woodstock.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 The Golliwogs to the punk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Lou Christie. All the underground hits.
All Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Heavy D & The Boyz record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a OOIOO record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-102,
OOIOO,
Grauzone,
Barrington Levy,
Essential Logic,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Names,
Hoover,
Japan,
The Remains,
Man Parrish,
Black Pus,
Nick Fraelich,
The Slits,
Roxette,
Section 25,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ohio Players,
Can,
Visage,
Cheater Slicks,
Soft Machine,
Boz Scaggs,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Index,
Unrelated Segments,
Neu!,
Altered Images,
E-Dancer,
Suburban Knight,
Mars,
Flash Fearless,
Wolf Eyes,
The Busters,
Public Enemy,
The Stooges,
James White and The Blacks,
Bronski Beat,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Bill Near,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Faraquet,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Isaac Hayes,
Lalann,
Kevin Saunderson,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The United States of America,
Mary Jane Girls,
Lindisfarne,
Tim Buckley,
Tomorrow,
Yaz,
The Human League,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Barry Ungar,
Reuben Wilson,
Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth.
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.