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 Indonesia and from Copenhagen.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Crooked Eye to the punk 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 Hashim. All the underground hits.
All 10cc tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Strawberry Alarm Clock 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a CMW record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Mo-Dettes,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Robert Hood,
The Doors,
Robert Görl,
Lindisfarne,
Masters at Work,
Pulsallama,
The Toasters,
Mission of Burma,
Radiohead,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Morten Harket,
The Real Kids,
Fad Gadget,
Slave,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Jeru the Damaja,
Cal Tjader,
Aloha Tigers,
Swans,
The Mummies,
Amazonics,
Bill Wells,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Sex Pistols,
Albert Ayler,
Funkadelic,
Mandrill,
The Human League,
Gang Starr,
Quando Quango,
Kaleidoscope,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Eli Mardock,
Scan 7,
A Certain Ratio,
Minutemen,
Technova,
Con Funk Shun,
Infiniti,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Scratch Acid,
Pantytec,
Television Personalities,
Scrapy,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Inner City,
ABBA,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Sonics,
Neil Young,
Black Moon,
Graham Central Station,
the Human League, the Human League, the Human League, the Human League.
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.