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 Barbados and from Shanghai.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Ultravox to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon. All the underground hits.
All Marshall Jefferson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Chris Corsano 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Be Bop Deluxe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Delon & Dalcan,
Ultimate Spinach,
Radiohead,
Al Stewart,
Television,
The Slits,
David McCallum,
Index,
James White and The Blacks,
Quadrant,
The Moody Blues,
The Walker Brothers,
The Standells,
Blake Baxter,
Scratch Acid,
The Residents,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Sällskapet,
Ludus,
Tropical Tobacco,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The American Breed,
Boredoms,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Cure,
Supertramp,
Negative Approach,
Sight & Sound,
the Germs,
kango's stein massive,
Brand Nubian,
Donny Hathaway,
Motorama,
Ituana,
Suicide,
Lee Hazlewood,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Music Machine,
Boz Scaggs,
Public Enemy,
Minor Threat,
Josef K,
48th St. Collective,
Little Man,
Quantec,
Gang Green,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
The Blues Magoos,
Chris & Cosey,
The Moleskins,
Johnny Osbourne,
Ten City,
Sandy B,
The Electric Prunes,
Sun Ra,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
MC5,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Henry Cow, Henry Cow, Henry Cow, Henry Cow.
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.