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 Solomon Islands and from Glasgow.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Pantytec to the grime 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 Japan. All the underground hits.
All Pet Shop Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pierre Henry 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a David Axelrod record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blake Baxter,
In Retrospect,
The Beau Brummels,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Red Krayola,
The Fall,
The Sonics,
Yazoo,
Youth Brigade,
Maleditus Sound,
Sex Pistols,
Alison Limerick,
The Searchers,
Scratch Acid,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The United States of America,
Piero Umiliani,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Durutti Column,
Mandrill,
Masters at Work,
The Five Americans,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Cramps,
Patti Smith,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Pagans,
Parry Music,
Minor Threat,
The Electric Prunes,
Von Mondo,
Ludus,
Marvin Gaye,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Ultimate Spinach,
Hardrive,
Crooked Eye,
UT,
Mars,
Hoover,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Main Source,
Rapeman,
Soul Sonic Force,
These Immortal Souls,
Marcia Griffiths,
La Düsseldorf,
The Fortunes,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Quadrant,
Agitation Free,
Robert Wyatt,
Ultra Naté,
Wasted Youth,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
John Foxx,
The Grass Roots,
the Sonics,
Rhythm & Sound,
Outsiders,
James White and The Blacks, James White and The Blacks, James White and The Blacks, James White and The Blacks.
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.