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 Zambia and from Johannesburg.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
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 Wings 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 John Lydon. All the underground hits.
All Larry & the Blue Notes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cabaret Voltaire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Minnie Riperton,
Drexciya,
The Toasters,
Quantec,
The Cramps,
Hoover,
Mantronix,
Jacob Miller,
Lebanon Hanover,
Maleditus Sound,
Kaleidoscope,
Mandrill,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Technova,
Juan Atkins,
CMW,
JFA,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Mo-Dettes,
The Blackbyrds,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Dead Boys,
Toni Rubio,
Patti Smith,
Scientists,
Erykah Badu,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Aloha Tigers,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Crash Course in Science,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Easy Going,
Simply Red,
Joy Division,
Oblivians,
Sugar Minott,
The Dave Clark Five,
Pet Shop Boys,
Amon Düül II,
Swell Maps,
The Barracudas,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Fuzztones,
Boogie Down Productions,
Slick Rick,
Matthew Bourne,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Rotary Connection,
Public Enemy,
Livin' Joy,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Public Image Ltd.,
Lindisfarne,
Mary Jane Girls,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Circle Jerks,
Alphaville,
Con Funk Shun,
Marcia Griffiths,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Harry Pussy,
Lungfish, Lungfish, Lungfish, Lungfish.
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.