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 Somalia and from Lyon.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Nation of Ulysses to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Pantaleimon. All the underground hits.
All Sex Pistols tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Slits record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scratch Acid record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Desert Stars,
The Stooges,
Simply Red,
Slave,
Scratch Acid,
Steve Hackett,
The Golliwogs,
Heaven 17,
The Index,
The Electric Prunes,
The Zeros,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Isaac Hayes,
Carl Craig,
The Walker Brothers,
The Slackers,
Junior Murvin,
Sound Behaviour,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Saccharine Trust,
DJ Sneak,
The Detroit Cobras,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Godley & Creme,
Panda Bear,
the Soft Cell,
Porter Ricks,
Electric Prunes,
Glenn Branca,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Kenny Larkin,
Peter & Gordon,
Sun Ra,
Excepter,
Qualms,
Radio Birdman,
Scrapy,
Liliput,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Rod Modell,
Scion,
Eve St. Jones,
Charles Mingus,
Kerri Chandler,
L. Decosne,
Ultra Naté,
Monks,
The Shadows of Knight,
John Cale,
Brothers Johnson,
10cc,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Icehouse,
Grauzone,
Black Bananas,
Rhythm & Sound,
Joensuu 1685,
Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane.
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.