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 Malta and from Calgary.
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 1967 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 The Invisible to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 CMW. All the underground hits.
All Animal Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Lydon 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeru the Damaja record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
June of 44,
Audionom,
Aural Exciters,
Grauzone,
David McCallum,
Quantec,
Ken Boothe,
Youth Brigade,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Fad Gadget,
KRS-One,
The Monochrome Set,
Rosa Yemen,
Depeche Mode,
Gang Gang Dance,
Ronnie Foster,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Man Eating Sloth,
Zero Boys,
Icehouse,
Spoonie Gee,
X-102,
The Monks,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Wally Richardson,
Quadrant,
The Motions,
Marcia Griffiths,
Lindisfarne,
Gabor Szabo,
Sam Rivers,
Ultra Naté,
The Cure,
Camberwell Now,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
the Normal,
Anakelly,
Throbbing Gristle,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
James Chance & The Contortions,
These Immortal Souls,
Black Pus,
Ultravox,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Deadbeat,
Public Enemy,
Q and Not U,
Idris Muhammad,
Little Man,
Leonard Cohen,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Kas Product,
La Düsseldorf,
Ice-T,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Young Rascals,
Gregory Isaacs,
Lyres, Lyres, Lyres, Lyres.
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.