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 Cuba 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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Eric B and Rakim to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Rhythm & Sound. All the underground hits.
All Man Parrish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alton Ellis 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fifty Foot Hose record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Theoretical Girls,
The Detroit Cobras,
Delta 5,
Gabor Szabo,
The Fall,
Japan,
Agent Orange,
Half Japanese,
Essential Logic,
Blake Baxter,
Pantytec,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Warren Ellis,
Magazine,
MC5,
The Grass Roots,
The Music Machine,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
K-Klass,
Whodini,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
F. McDonald,
Agitation Free,
Rosa Yemen,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Anthony Braxton,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Pussy Galore,
Eric Dolphy,
Mars,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Can,
DNA,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Quando Quango,
Suicide,
Judy Mowatt,
Malaria!,
Rufus Thomas,
Banda Bassotti,
Shuggie Otis,
Dual Sessions,
The Last Poets,
The Names,
Jesper Dahlback,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Simply Red,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Neil Young,
Cybotron,
The Evens,
Yellowson,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Danielle Patucci,
Goldenarms,
Gregory Isaacs,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Searchers,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Lalann, Lalann, Lalann, Lalann.
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.