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 Belize and from Spokane.
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 1963 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Accra.
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 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 Michael McDonald 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 Symarip to the dance 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 The Mummies. All the underground hits.
All The Index tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every JFA record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
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 The Techniques record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Absolute Body Control,
Bush Tetras,
Terrestrial Tones,
Matthew Bourne,
X-Ray Spex,
Cymande,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Q and Not U,
Animal Collective,
Hoover,
Reagan Youth,
Agent Orange,
Derrick Morgan,
The Slits,
EPMD,
Heaven 17,
Sonic Youth,
Soft Cell,
Jacques Brel,
Kurtis Blow,
Saccharine Trust,
The Raincoats,
Al Stewart,
Alice Coltrane,
Banda Bassotti,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Lou Reed,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Byron Stingily,
The Count Five,
Tears for Fears,
The Cowsills,
Section 25,
Bob Dylan,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Flesh Eaters,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Visage,
Joey Negro,
Flash Fearless,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Electric Prunes,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
LL Cool J,
the Soft Cell,
New York Dolls,
The American Breed,
Radiohead,
The Durutti Column,
James White and The Blacks,
F. McDonald,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Ultra Naté,
Siglo XX,
DJ Sneak,
The Cramps,
Theoretical Girls,
Arab on Radar,
Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez.
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.