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 Romania and from Mumbai.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 John Cale to the funk 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 Country Teasers. All the underground hits.
All Sonny Sharrock tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quando Quango 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zero Boys record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sun Ra,
Basic Channel,
Arthur Verocai,
Zapp,
Theoretical Girls,
The Electric Prunes,
The Leaves,
Mad Mike,
The Sound,
Rites of Spring,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Youth Brigade,
The Gap Band,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
the Soft Cell,
The Slits,
EPMD,
Alice Coltrane,
Kurtis Blow,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Joensuu 1685,
Erasure,
Technova,
Flipper,
Deepchord,
Kaleidoscope,
Andrew Hill,
Ralphi Rosario,
Dark Day,
Glenn Branca,
Dennis Brown,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
In Retrospect,
Marine Girls,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Brick,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Bizarre Inc.,
John Coltrane,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Misunderstood,
Patti Smith,
Swans,
The Doobie Brothers,
Prince Buster,
Excepter,
Delon & Dalcan,
Robert Hood,
The Dead C,
Josef K,
Au Pairs,
Ituana,
June Days,
Danielle Patucci,
Scott Walker,
Chrome,
Cecil Taylor,
Harmonia,
Von Mondo,
The Buckinghams,
Yellowson, Yellowson, Yellowson, Yellowson.
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.