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 Nepal and from Lille.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 808 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 In Retrospect to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Swans. All the underground hits.
All Kevin Saunderson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a This Heat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mission of Burma,
The Mummies,
Section 25,
The American Breed,
Barrington Levy,
Half Japanese,
Gastr Del Sol,
Ponytail,
Lucky Dragons,
Oblivians,
Circle Jerks,
Delon & Dalcan,
Clear Light,
H. Thieme,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Radiohead,
Sun City Girls,
The Stooges,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Warren Ellis,
The Real Kids,
The Names,
Dennis Brown,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Walker Brothers,
Minnie Riperton,
Sex Pistols,
Roy Ayers,
Terrestrial Tones,
Sugar Minott,
Thompson Twins,
The Victims,
Echospace,
Dual Sessions,
Sonic Youth,
Swell Maps,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Gories,
Ornette Coleman,
Derrick Morgan,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Slits,
Althea and Donna,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Ronnie Foster,
Moss Icon,
Jimmy McGriff,
Matthew Halsall,
The Cure,
Crime,
Tommy Roe,
Bobby Byrd,
Idris Muhammad,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Moby Grape,
Accadde A,
Young Marble Giants,
The Wake,
Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane.
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.