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 St Kitts & Nevis and from Winnipeg.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Arab on Radar to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Amon Düül. All the underground hits.
All Accadde A tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Big Daddy Kane record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kaleidoscope record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eddi Front,
Masters at Work,
The Young Rascals,
Bobby Byrd,
The Pretty Things,
The Walker Brothers,
Quando Quango,
Fatback Band,
Talk Talk,
Colin Newman,
Byron Stingily,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tubeway Army,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Charles Mingus,
Grauzone,
Lebanon Hanover,
Ornette Coleman,
Mark Hollis,
MDC,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
PIL,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Durutti Column,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
This Heat,
The Kinks,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
10cc,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Last Poets,
Todd Terry,
Symarip,
Dave Gahan,
Howard Jones,
Cecil Taylor,
Y Pants,
Slick Rick,
Marc Almond,
Amon Düül,
The Standells,
Heaven 17,
Tomorrow,
EPMD,
Mad Mike,
Duran Duran,
Suburban Knight,
Spandau Ballet,
Eric Dolphy,
Rapeman,
The Dave Clark Five,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Sonics,
June Days,
Radio Birdman,
June of 44,
Juan Atkins,
R.M.O.,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Sound, The Sound, The Sound, The Sound.
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.