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 Nauru and from Delhi.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 808 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 Ultramagnetic MC's to the rock 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 Electric Light Orchestra. All the underground hits.
All Lee Hazlewood tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Youth Brigade record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 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 The Velvet Underground record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Bowie,
Simply Red,
Janne Schatter,
Agitation Free,
The Young Rascals,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Lightning Bolt,
Von Mondo,
Barry Ungar,
Avey Tare,
Bobby Byrd,
Siglo XX,
Young Marble Giants,
The Smiths,
The Blues Magoos,
Rosa Yemen,
Brothers Johnson,
The Index,
Pagans,
New Age Steppers,
Japan,
Clear Light,
Robert Görl,
Max Romeo,
Matthew Halsall,
Basic Channel,
Q and Not U,
The Busters,
Jeff Mills,
Public Enemy,
The Cowsills,
DJ Style,
Althea and Donna,
Grey Daturas,
Boz Scaggs,
Sight & Sound,
Silicon Teens,
Harpers Bizarre,
Glenn Branca,
The Cosmic Jokers,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Gastr Del Sol,
Monks,
Harmonia,
Marc Almond,
Tom Boy,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Divine Comedy,
The Barracudas,
Das Ding,
Yazoo,
Henry Cow,
Yusef Lateef,
Bluetip,
Mission of Burma,
New Order,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Model 500,
Delta 5,
Blossom Toes,
Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler.
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.