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 the UAE and from Sao Paulo.
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 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and London.
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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 The Move to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Porter Ricks. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every DJ Style record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 sitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Intrusion,
Fatback Band,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Blackbyrds,
Laurel Aitken,
Johnny Osbourne,
Monolake,
Blancmange,
Faust,
Magma,
Lightning Bolt,
Charles Mingus,
Young Marble Giants,
Quando Quango,
Radiohead,
Althea and Donna,
Arthur Verocai,
Mo-Dettes,
Smog,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Marcia Griffiths,
The New Christs,
Dark Day,
The Mummies,
Don Cherry,
Reuben Wilson,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Dave Clark Five,
Ossler,
Warren Ellis,
Eddi Front,
Metal Thangz,
LL Cool J,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Selecter,
Carl Craig,
Yazoo,
Television Personalities,
Erasure,
Brick,
DJ Style,
Ohio Players,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Electric Prunes,
Interpol,
F. McDonald,
The Dirtbombs,
Sandy B,
Das Ding,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Blues Magoos,
World's Most,
Bobby Womack,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
the Swans,
Peter & Gordon,
The Pretty Things,
Rites of Spring,
New Order,
Make Up,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.