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 Sweden and from Delhi.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 PIL to the disco 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 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. All the underground hits.
All The Star Department tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Malaria! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Fire Engines,
The Fuzztones,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Cramps,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Sugar Minott,
Lebanon Hanover,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Skaos,
Robert Wyatt,
June of 44,
Sparks,
Faust,
Chris Corsano,
Dennis Brown,
Buzzcocks,
Urselle,
Subhumans,
OOIOO,
Kerri Chandler,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Alton Ellis,
Brass Construction,
Dawn Penn,
Lakeside,
The Buckinghams,
Jacob Miller,
Mission of Burma,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Motions,
Warren Ellis,
Joe Finger,
Slave,
Maleditus Sound,
Nils Olav,
Hashim,
Shoche,
The Mojo Men,
Gabor Szabo,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Morten Harket,
Moebius,
Eurythmics,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Gang Gang Dance,
Panda Bear,
Delta 5,
Man Eating Sloth,
Stockholm Monsters,
Whodini,
Gerry Rafferty,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Fortunes,
Glambeats Corp.,
Grauzone,
The Last Poets,
Black Pus,
Franke,
Y Pants,
The Black Dice,
Monolake, Monolake, Monolake, Monolake.
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.