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 Rwanda and from Seoul.
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 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Accadde A 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 Cabaret Voltaire. All the underground hits.
All Wasted Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Niagra record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Vogues record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Quadrant,
Fat Boys,
Eric Dolphy,
Tropical Tobacco,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Kurtis Blow,
These Immortal Souls,
The Litter,
The Young Rascals,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Tom Boy,
Fluxion,
Oblivians,
Rapeman,
Wally Richardson,
Das Ding,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Doors,
Yaz,
Sparks,
John Holt,
Minutemen,
Rites of Spring,
Arcadia,
Jeff Lynne,
Bootsy Collins,
Audionom,
Television Personalities,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Misunderstood,
Ultravox,
Lucky Dragons,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
10cc,
Amon Düül II,
Qualms,
Harpers Bizarre,
Barbara Tucker,
Model 500,
Pussy Galore,
Alison Limerick,
Animal Collective,
Nick Fraelich,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Chrome,
This Heat,
Sister Nancy,
Spandau Ballet,
Donald Byrd,
Ultimate Spinach,
Marcia Griffiths,
James White and The Blacks,
Nico,
Swans,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Leaves,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Cheater Slicks,
Blossom Toes,
Lou Christie,
Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims, Joyce Sims.
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.