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 Belarus and from Jakarta.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Delhi.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the sitar 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 Sugar Minott to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Tropical Tobacco. All the underground hits.
All Harmonia tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Modern Lovers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nation of Ulysses record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roy Ayers,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Cure,
Fluxion,
Youth Brigade,
Funky Four + One,
Average White Band,
Faraquet,
Symarip,
Can,
UT,
kango's stein massive,
James White and The Blacks,
Eric B and Rakim,
Magma,
The Durutti Column,
Yazoo,
Kayak,
Mantronix,
The Seeds,
Joyce Sims,
Bauhaus,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Malaria!,
Lightning Bolt,
PIL,
Thompson Twins,
Lungfish,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Siglo XX,
The Sound,
Sam Rivers,
Warsaw,
Lou Christie,
Bobby Sherman,
Drive Like Jehu,
Hoover,
The Mummies,
Robert Wyatt,
Gang Starr,
Whodini,
Tres Demented,
Michelle Simonal,
Flipper,
The United States of America,
Fatback Band,
FM Einheit,
Iggy Pop,
Crime,
Eve St. Jones,
Sonny Sharrock,
Josef K,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Smog,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Rekid,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Derrick May,
Clear Light,
Swans,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour.
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.