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 South Sudan and from Tehran.
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 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Techniques to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 In Retrospect. All the underground hits.
All Kaleidoscope tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pylon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Silicon Teens record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Animal Collective,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Angels of Light,
Graham Central Station,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Move,
Panda Bear,
The Victims,
Man Parrish,
Danielle Patucci,
10cc,
Girls At Our Best!,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
ABC,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Althea and Donna,
T. Rex,
Maleditus Sound,
Main Source,
Rufus Thomas,
Aural Exciters,
Quadrant,
The Velvet Underground,
Alison Limerick,
OOIOO,
Idris Muhammad,
The J.B.'s,
The Walker Brothers,
Dawn Penn,
Motorama,
Cluster,
This Heat,
Organ,
Eli Mardock,
Ken Boothe,
Judy Mowatt,
Underground Resistance,
kango's stein massive,
Marcia Griffiths,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Marine Girls,
One Last Wish,
Little Man,
Colin Newman,
Angry Samoans,
the Association,
The Stooges,
Morten Harket,
Brothers Johnson,
Ohio Players,
Todd Terry,
Nick Fraelich,
The Cure,
Crispian St. Peters,
Wolf Eyes,
Blake Baxter,
Peter and Kerry,
Ituana,
Saccharine Trust,
Nik Kershaw,
The Dead C,
Nas, Nas, Nas, Nas.
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.