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 Belize and from Mexico City.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Milan.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
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 It's A Beautiful Day to the rap kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Suicide. All the underground hits.
All Arcadia tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arcadia 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Althea and Donna record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Peter and Kerry,
Sexual Harrassment,
Maleditus Sound,
the Soft Cell,
The Victims,
The Zeros,
Letta Mbulu,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Severed Heads,
Television Personalities,
Tom Boy,
Hoover,
Ronnie Foster,
Prince Buster,
F. McDonald,
Magazine,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Smoke,
Rod Modell,
The Standells,
June Days,
Marshall Jefferson,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Skatalites,
Tropical Tobacco,
Black Flag,
The Cowsills,
Chris & Cosey,
Yazoo,
Talk Talk,
Bootsy Collins,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Knickerbockers,
X-101,
Agent Orange,
Saccharine Trust,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Residents,
Loose Ends,
Public Enemy,
Ronan,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Rosa Yemen,
Matthew Bourne,
Alton Ellis,
Sixth Finger,
Sandy B,
Quando Quango,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Leaves,
Bobby Womack,
Kurtis Blow,
Althea and Donna,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Colin Newman,
Grey Daturas,
The Sonics,
Mission of Burma,
Ultimate Spinach,
Blake Baxter,
Nico,
Flash Fearless,
Popol Vuh,
The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter.
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.