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 Kiribati and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the güiro 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 Mantronix to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Stetsasonic. All the underground hits.
All Frankie Knuckles tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alphaville record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scientists record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zero Boys,
Guru Guru,
Sparks,
Young Marble Giants,
Cecil Taylor,
Alice Coltrane,
Rotary Connection,
Moby Grape,
Jimmy McGriff,
Steve Hackett,
Carl Craig,
The Mojo Men,
These Immortal Souls,
Black Moon,
Donald Byrd,
the Normal,
The Tremeloes,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Ornette Coleman,
The Black Dice,
Bush Tetras,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Funky Four + One,
The Young Rascals,
Roy Ayers,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Todd Terry,
Freddie Wadling,
Smog,
Nirvana,
Tom Boy,
Nik Kershaw,
Dennis Brown,
UT,
The Selecter,
The J.B.'s,
Oneida,
Isaac Hayes,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Fall,
Kaleidoscope,
Joy Division,
Country Joe & The Fish,
the Human League,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Eric B and Rakim,
Grandmaster Flash,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Public Image Ltd.,
Pantytec,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Sound,
Leonard Cohen,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Cybotron,
The Index,
Lightning Bolt,
Faust, Faust, Faust, Faust.
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.