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 Syria 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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 snare 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 Prince Buster to the grime 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 Piero Umiliani. All the underground hits.
All The Offenders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gian Franco Pienzio 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aural Exciters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Green,
The Fire Engines,
Saccharine Trust,
Wally Richardson,
Swans,
Terrestrial Tones,
U.S. Maple,
Dorothy Ashby,
kango's stein massive,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Leonard Cohen,
Boredoms,
Black Moon,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Au Pairs,
Electric Prunes,
Al Stewart,
Buzzcocks,
Sam Rivers,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Barry Ungar,
Roxette,
Banda Bassotti,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Arcadia,
Derrick Morgan,
The Offenders,
Sexual Harrassment,
Icehouse,
Grey Daturas,
John Lydon,
Con Funk Shun,
Rapeman,
The Monochrome Set,
Q and Not U,
Kayak,
Barbara Tucker,
Danielle Patucci,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Smiths,
Pere Ubu,
Judy Mowatt,
The Star Department,
Bush Tetras,
Harmonia,
Zero Boys,
David Bowie,
The Evens,
The Dirtbombs,
The New Christs,
Jawbox,
Jacob Miller,
Ohio Players,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Sugar Minott,
Eden Ahbez,
Jimmy McGriff,
Laurel Aitken,
Deadbeat,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.