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 Albania and from Winnipeg.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 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 Sparks to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Sonics. All the underground hits.
All Hasil Adkins tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gerry Rafferty record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 guitar and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nico record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cheater Slicks,
Harpers Bizarre,
Rod Modell,
Grandmaster Flash,
Al Stewart,
Byron Stingily,
Grey Daturas,
Mandrill,
Crispian St. Peters,
Neu!,
Aloha Tigers,
Sugar Minott,
China Crisis,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Martian,
Delon & Dalcan,
Crooked Eye,
The Happenings,
The Motions,
The Buckinghams,
Faust,
Scrapy,
Scott Walker,
Saccharine Trust,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Joe Smooth,
Lindisfarne,
Depeche Mode,
The Dead C,
Model 500,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Flipper,
Kaleidoscope,
Soft Cell,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Das Ding,
Boz Scaggs,
Soul Sonic Force,
Pagans,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Red Krayola,
The Detroit Cobras,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Gang Starr,
Dennis Brown,
Accadde A,
Barry Ungar,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Laurel Aitken,
Main Source,
Shuggie Otis,
The Fortunes,
Stiv Bators,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Sound,
Freddie Wadling,
Black Moon,
Sight & Sound,
Echospace,
Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens, Silicon Teens.
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.