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 Botswana and from Tehran.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
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 The Alarm Clocks to the disco kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Alton Ellis. All the underground hits.
All Derrick May tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Saccharine Trust record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kaleidoscope record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Human League,
The Doobie Brothers,
Second Layer,
Intrusion,
Electric Prunes,
Kevin Saunderson,
Marc Almond,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Donny Hathaway,
Wolf Eyes,
This Heat,
Lightning Bolt,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Sam Rivers,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Dirtbombs,
Stereo Dub,
The Gladiators,
Boogie Down Productions,
Eurythmics,
DNA,
Visage,
Zero Boys,
Neu!,
Man Eating Sloth,
Guru Guru,
Heaven 17,
Wasted Youth,
Icehouse,
The Count Five,
The Blackbyrds,
the Soft Cell,
Scientists,
The Associates,
Q and Not U,
Arthur Verocai,
Niagra,
JFA,
Bush Tetras,
Lindisfarne,
It's A Beautiful Day,
8 Eyed Spy,
Jandek,
Soul Sonic Force,
Smog,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Talk Talk,
Ossler,
Joe Smooth,
Accadde A,
The Cramps,
Zapp,
Gichy Dan,
Reagan Youth,
Hot Snakes,
Big Daddy Kane,
Henry Cow,
Yellowson,
Neil Young,
Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco.
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.