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 Libya and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Black Sheep to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 DJ Style. All the underground hits.
All MDC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every R.M.O. 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Television Personalities record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Techniques,
Oblivians,
Gerry Rafferty,
Shoche,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Unwound,
June Days,
Yazoo,
Das Ding,
Index,
UT,
Patti Smith,
Letta Mbulu,
Rufus Thomas,
Schoolly D,
Smog,
Fatback Band,
Skarface,
The Buckinghams,
The Gories,
Kas Product,
Hot Snakes,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Eric Copeland,
Duran Duran,
Robert Hood,
Franke,
The Barracudas,
Neu!,
Althea and Donna,
Bootsy Collins,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Motorama,
Zapp,
Todd Rundgren,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Tears for Fears,
Ice-T,
Minnie Riperton,
Crash Course in Science,
Stockholm Monsters,
Freddie Wadling,
Monks,
The Angels of Light,
Harpers Bizarre,
Jeff Lynne,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Misunderstood,
Neil Young,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Cecil Taylor,
Banda Bassotti,
The Tremeloes,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Brass Construction,
The Pretty Things,
Archie Shepp,
Joy Division,
Bad Manners,
Audionom,
Yusef Lateef,
The Stooges,
Selector Dub Narcotic, Selector Dub Narcotic, Selector Dub Narcotic, Selector Dub Narcotic.
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.