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 Latvia and from Cairo.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Man Eating Sloth to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Minutemen. All the underground hits.
All Selector Dub Narcotic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Last Poets 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 marimba and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Neu! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Sonny Sharrock,
Prince Buster,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Wolf Eyes,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Duran Duran,
Sun City Girls,
Simply Red,
Reuben Wilson,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The American Breed,
The Sonics,
June of 44,
Warren Ellis,
Clear Light,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Aloha Tigers,
The Barracudas,
Royal Trux,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Frankie Knuckles,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Oblivians,
Eden Ahbez,
Sparks,
Howard Jones,
Motorama,
Thee Headcoats,
Laurel Aitken,
Stereo Dub,
Bauhaus,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Soft Machine,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Monks,
Arab on Radar,
Jacques Brel,
Bill Near,
Television Personalities,
Bootsy Collins,
Dawn Penn,
Josef K,
K-Klass,
Massinfluence,
Kool Moe Dee,
Rites of Spring,
Shuggie Otis,
Warsaw,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Drexciya,
Pole,
Colin Newman,
Moebius,
Agitation Free,
OOIOO,
Pussy Galore,
Pharoah Sanders,
B.T. Express,
the Human League,
Subhumans, Subhumans, Subhumans, Subhumans.
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.