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 Ghana and from Beijing.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Hot Snakes to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Eurythmics. All the underground hits.
All Ajijia Myrayebe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pantytec record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Buckinghams record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Massinfluence,
Sonic Youth,
Crispy Ambulance,
Delon & Dalcan,
Television Personalities,
Piero Umiliani,
Model 500,
Jandek,
Yellowson,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Surgeon,
Lindisfarne,
Babytalk,
Urselle,
Althea and Donna,
Gong,
Donald Byrd,
Ultra Naté,
The Saints,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Fall,
Bluetip,
Alison Limerick,
The Slits,
Sound Behaviour,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Bad Manners,
The Five Americans,
Black Sheep,
The Doors,
Stetsasonic,
Gregory Isaacs,
Avey Tare,
Dennis Brown,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Peter and Kerry,
The Raincoats,
Rhythm & Sound,
Scrapy,
Eric Copeland,
Gang of Four,
Bobby Byrd,
The Blues Magoos,
the Normal,
Ultravox,
The Last Poets,
Robert Görl,
The Red Krayola,
The Fugs,
The Grass Roots,
Trumans Water,
The Electric Prunes,
Fatback Band,
Swans,
Joe Smooth,
Nico,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Cecil Taylor,
The Divine Comedy,
Audionom,
Wire, Wire, Wire, Wire.
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.