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 Solomon Islands 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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Con Funk Shun. All the underground hits.
All Joe Finger tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slick Rick record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brothers Johnson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Curtis Mayfield,
Minnie Riperton,
Malaria!,
the Soft Cell,
Lightning Bolt,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Moody Blues,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Minutemen,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Blossom Toes,
UT,
Sixth Finger,
Gang of Four,
Mandrill,
Young Marble Giants,
Bush Tetras,
The Happenings,
Wasted Youth,
Hashim,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Junior Murvin,
the Human League,
Rod Modell,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Smog,
Sight & Sound,
Animal Collective,
James White and The Blacks,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Anthony Braxton,
Dorothy Ashby,
Angry Samoans,
The Sound,
Y Pants,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Groovy Waters,
Country Teasers,
Soul II Soul,
Roy Ayers,
Jeff Lynne,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Wire,
Essential Logic,
T.S.O.L.,
Toni Rubio,
Kool Moe Dee,
Shuggie Otis,
Tropical Tobacco,
Faust,
Cybotron,
Urselle,
Ultimate Spinach,
John Holt,
Black Pus,
Bronski Beat,
Barclay James Harvest,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Guru Guru,
The Smoke,
Piero Umiliani,
The Toasters, The Toasters, The Toasters, The Toasters.
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.