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 Palau and from Glasgow.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Ronnie Foster. All the underground hits.
All The Slits tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joyce Sims record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bauhaus record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yaz,
Underground Resistance,
Eric Copeland,
Quantec,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Delon & Dalcan,
Cecil Taylor,
The Invisible,
Scrapy,
Slick Rick,
Dorothy Ashby,
Youth Brigade,
Godley & Creme,
Technova,
Radiopuhelimet,
Jacob Miller,
Brothers Johnson,
The Raincoats,
Rufus Thomas,
Thompson Twins,
Yellowson,
Fela Kuti,
Monks,
Monolake,
Sight & Sound,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Tears for Fears,
Flamin' Groovies,
Smog,
The Index,
The Knickerbockers,
Young Marble Giants,
Jeff Lynne,
Model 500,
The Fugs,
Joe Smooth,
Pierre Henry,
L. Decosne,
Lungfish,
Jesper Dahlback,
Soft Cell,
Ultimate Spinach,
Scratch Acid,
Minutemen,
Sugar Minott,
Mission of Burma,
Cameo,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Hoover,
Livin' Joy,
Derrick May,
Sonic Youth,
F. McDonald,
Animal Collective,
Don Cherry,
Gang Green,
Byron Stingily,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Arab on Radar,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
ABBA,
Saccharine Trust,
Procol Harum,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.