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 Argentina and from London.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Scion to the funk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Smog. All the underground hits.
All Jandek tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Notorious Big And Bone Thugs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Curtis Mayfield,
Tropical Tobacco,
Electric Prunes,
Nirvana,
Dead Boys,
The Black Dice,
Hoover,
Technova,
the Normal,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Siglo XX,
Faust,
Livin' Joy,
The Five Americans,
Black Bananas,
Jacques Brel,
Television Personalities,
The Techniques,
Shuggie Otis,
Robert Wyatt,
Matthew Bourne,
Easy Going,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Second Layer,
Talk Talk,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Lalo Schifrin,
Laurel Aitken,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Moebius,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Joy Division,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Model 500,
the Bar-Kays,
The Doors,
Joe Finger,
Radio Birdman,
Agent Orange,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Eddi Front,
Qualms,
Cal Tjader,
Clear Light,
Chrome,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Rakim,
Little Man,
Johnny Clarke,
T. Rex,
Max Romeo,
Alphaville,
The Alarm Clocks,
Make Up,
Can,
Ultra Naté,
Pole,
Duran Duran,
Jeff Mills,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Icehouse,
Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock.
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.