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 Equatorial Guinea 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 1966 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Seoul.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the linndrum 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 Qualms to the rock 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 Ronnie Foster. All the underground hits.
All Al Stewart tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Iggy Pop record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Don Cherry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sam Rivers,
Banda Bassotti,
Scion,
Boz Scaggs,
Sex Pistols,
Franke,
The Evens,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Little Man,
Freddie Wadling,
Television,
Stereo Dub,
Rosa Yemen,
John Foxx,
Harpers Bizarre,
Wings,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Audionom,
Sight & Sound,
Bad Manners,
Gang Gang Dance,
Alphaville,
Gang Green,
The Associates,
Skarface,
The Dead C,
Boredoms,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Subhumans,
The Fugs,
the Fania All-Stars,
Sun City Girls,
Desert Stars,
Hoover,
The Cowsills,
The Sound,
Dennis Brown,
KRS-One,
The Real Kids,
Brass Construction,
Flipper,
Erykah Badu,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
L. Decosne,
The Zeros,
The Alarm Clocks,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Easy Going,
Janne Schatter,
Eurythmics,
T.S.O.L.,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Slackers,
David Bowie,
Rufus Thomas,
10cc,
E-Dancer,
Minutemen,
The Invisible,
The Monochrome Set,
The Skatalites,
John Cale,
Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar.
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.