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 Morocco and from Milan.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Ash Ra Tempel to the rap 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 Reagan Youth. All the underground hits.
All Robert Hood tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Symarip record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Depeche Mode record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joyce Sims,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Bad Manners,
Bronski Beat,
Magma,
the Human League,
Malaria!,
Ice-T,
Japan,
Chrome,
Cameo,
Schoolly D,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Fatback Band,
Matthew Halsall,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Smoke,
Fluxion,
Boogie Down Productions,
PIL,
John Holt,
Stereo Dub,
Cheater Slicks,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
E-Dancer,
DJ Style,
Sister Nancy,
Ultimate Spinach,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Faust,
Ituana,
Dark Day,
Circle Jerks,
Visage,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Connie Case,
Eddi Front,
Technova,
Black Sheep,
The Shadows of Knight,
Carl Craig,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Kerrie Biddell,
the Normal,
Pulsallama,
The Associates,
Juan Atkins,
Jeru the Damaja,
Deepchord,
Lyres,
Lucky Dragons,
Bauhaus,
Dorothy Ashby,
Dave Gahan,
The Kinks,
X-102,
H. Thieme,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Litter, The Litter, The Litter, The Litter.
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.