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 Vietnam and from Sao Paulo.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Desert Stars to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Can. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Hutcherson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unrelated Segments 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a June of 44 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
MC5,
The Skatalites,
Bill Wells,
Colin Newman,
Grandmaster Flash,
Idris Muhammad,
Silicon Teens,
Alton Ellis,
Ronnie Foster,
Mars,
Lower 48,
Deadbeat,
Kaleidoscope,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Sonny Sharrock,
Pulsallama,
Carl Craig,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Alice Coltrane,
Black Bananas,
Soft Machine,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Evens,
Sexual Harrassment,
Toni Rubio,
Sugar Minott,
Skarface,
This Heat,
Funky Four + One,
Au Pairs,
Peter & Gordon,
Mandrill,
Rites of Spring,
Frankie Knuckles,
the Soft Cell,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
David Bowie,
Morten Harket,
James White and The Blacks,
Nation of Ulysses,
10cc,
The Zeros,
Al Stewart,
Neu!,
Gabor Szabo,
Brand Nubian,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Excepter,
The Cramps,
A Certain Ratio,
Shuggie Otis,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Gladiators,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Happenings,
Arcadia,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Neon Judgement,
Hasil Adkins,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye.
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.