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 Sweden and from Sao Paulo.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 sitar 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 Yaz to the grime 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 Bang On A Can. All the underground hits.
All Flipper tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Darondo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scrapy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Deepchord,
Sparks,
Matthew Bourne,
CMW,
New Age Steppers,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Cure,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Mummies,
The Last Poets,
Banda Bassotti,
Fad Gadget,
The J.B.'s,
June of 44,
Derrick May,
Oblivians,
Laurel Aitken,
Ronnie Foster,
Cluster,
Arab on Radar,
Alphaville,
Hashim,
Kevin Saunderson,
Derrick Morgan,
Scan 7,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Jesper Dahlback,
Arcadia,
Depeche Mode,
The Stooges,
Bronski Beat,
The Monks,
Henry Cow,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Cecil Taylor,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Youth Brigade,
The Victims,
Urselle,
Gastr Del Sol,
the Slits,
Robert Görl,
Gil Scott Heron,
the Human League,
Rakim,
The Gladiators,
Bauhaus,
Bobby Byrd,
Jeff Mills,
Young Marble Giants,
Heaven 17,
Slick Rick,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Todd Rundgren,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Bobby Sherman,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Marshall Jefferson,
The Durutti Column,
Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis.
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.