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 Nicaragua and from Madrid.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Angels of Light to the disco 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 It's A Beautiful Day. All the underground hits.
All Rosa Yemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fluxion record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gang of Four record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Shuggie Otis,
Brothers Johnson,
Public Enemy,
Flamin' Groovies,
Susan Cadogan,
Cybotron,
Ronnie Foster,
The New Christs,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Grass Roots,
Sandy B,
The Five Americans,
The Smoke,
The Detroit Cobras,
Blancmange,
Black Bananas,
Curtis Mayfield,
Robert Hood,
The Flesh Eaters,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Alarm Clocks,
Black Moon,
Bizarre Inc.,
Althea and Donna,
the Germs,
MC5,
The Gap Band,
Nico,
The Leaves,
John Coltrane,
Agent Orange,
Man Eating Sloth,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Pantytec,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Swell Maps,
JFA,
Crispian St. Peters,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Audionom,
Ultimate Spinach,
Kevin Saunderson,
Connie Case,
The Velvet Underground,
The Sound,
The Associates,
Mandrill,
Arcadia,
Josef K,
Rites of Spring,
Intrusion,
Cheater Slicks,
Quando Quango,
Sam Rivers,
Second Layer,
Angry Samoans,
Clear Light, Clear Light, Clear Light, Clear Light.
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.