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 Somalia 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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 The Last Poets to the funk 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 Amazonics. All the underground hits.
All Yellowson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Erasure 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Schoolly D record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Smiths,
The Last Poets,
Junior Murvin,
Quantec,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sixth Finger,
Arthur Verocai,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Associates,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Minor Threat,
Black Pus,
Steve Hackett,
Yazoo,
Infiniti,
Organ,
Fluxion,
Talk Talk,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
the Bar-Kays,
F. McDonald,
Inner City,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Alton Ellis,
Marvin Gaye,
June Days,
The Black Dice,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Real Kids,
the Germs,
Warren Ellis,
The Victims,
Neil Young,
Au Pairs,
Man Eating Sloth,
Q65,
The Dirtbombs,
The United States of America,
New Order,
Thee Headcoats,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Ponytail,
Crime,
Young Marble Giants,
Jesper Dahlback,
Faraquet,
Idris Muhammad,
kango's stein massive,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Vladislav Delay,
Mary Jane Girls,
Kerrie Biddell,
Eli Mardock,
The Offenders,
Simply Red,
Sparks,
Interpol,
Agitation Free,
Gregory Isaacs,
Stockholm Monsters,
48th St. Collective,
a-ha,
Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring, Rites of Spring.
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.