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 Brunei and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Scratch Acid to the grunge kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Sex Pistols. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Skriet 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hardrive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Wire,
Crispian St. Peters,
the Sonics,
Accadde A,
The Mojo Men,
Second Layer,
The Gap Band,
Bobby Byrd,
the Human League,
Don Cherry,
The Gories,
Bill Wells,
Lalo Schifrin,
Sparks,
Andrew Hill,
Erykah Badu,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Kurtis Blow,
Unrelated Segments,
The Sonics,
Hot Snakes,
The Golliwogs,
MC5,
Anthony Braxton,
Public Image Ltd.,
The United States of America,
Icehouse,
The American Breed,
The Selecter,
Drexciya,
Nas,
Robert Wyatt,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Shuggie Otis,
Donny Hathaway,
Television Personalities,
Marvin Gaye,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Aaron Thompson,
Black Sheep,
Alton Ellis,
T.S.O.L.,
Iggy Pop,
Sexual Harrassment,
Archie Shepp,
Jandek,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
The Trojans,
Lungfish,
Cluster,
Technova,
Gang of Four,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
E-Dancer,
The Buckinghams,
Derrick Morgan,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Zeros,
Deepchord, Deepchord, Deepchord, Deepchord.
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.