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 Lesotho and from Madrid.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
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 The Fortunes to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 This Heat. All the underground hits.
All the Normal tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Essential Logic record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a David McCallum record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joe Finger,
Pet Shop Boys,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Dawn Penn,
Severed Heads,
Second Layer,
X-102,
The Electric Prunes,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Oblivians,
Quadrant,
June Days,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Laurel Aitken,
Marvin Gaye,
Pagans,
Soft Cell,
It's A Beautiful Day,
X-101,
Alton Ellis,
Ronan,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Terry Callier,
Swans,
Can,
The Wake,
Monks,
Soft Machine,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Groovy Waters,
T.S.O.L.,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Anthony Braxton,
Andrew Hill,
Fela Kuti,
The Fall,
Scott Walker,
Flipper,
Roger Hodgson,
The Offenders,
The Trojans,
Radiopuhelimet,
Ten City,
Barrington Levy,
Faraquet,
Bobbi Humphrey,
EPMD,
Susan Cadogan,
The Doobie Brothers,
Technova,
DJ Sneak,
Amon Düül II,
The Gun Club,
The Blues Magoos,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Stetsasonic,
the Soft Cell,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Jacob Miller,
Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis.
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.