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 Malawi and from Mumbai.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Sällskapet to the grunge 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 CMW. All the underground hits.
All Index tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jerry's Kids record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Wyatt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gastr Del Sol,
New Order,
UT,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Lungfish,
Reuben Wilson,
James Chance & The Contortions,
John Cale,
The Moody Blues,
Lucky Dragons,
Sound Behaviour,
Monks,
Crime,
John Coltrane,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Kevin Saunderson,
Althea and Donna,
Soulsonic Force,
Stetsasonic,
Matthew Halsall,
LL Cool J,
Todd Terry,
Second Layer,
Sun Ra,
Gang Starr,
Index,
Black Flag,
Bauhaus,
Drive Like Jehu,
Soft Cell,
The Red Krayola,
Zapp,
Sex Pistols,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ponytail,
Gang of Four,
In Retrospect,
Camouflage,
Sister Nancy,
Ornette Coleman,
Unrelated Segments,
Pole,
Television Personalities,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Cowsills,
Tommy Roe,
Minor Threat,
John Foxx,
The Fire Engines,
Underground Resistance,
Archie Shepp,
Oneida,
Morten Harket,
The Leaves,
X-101,
Interpol,
Quando Quango,
The Grass Roots,
Harry Pussy,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
KRS-One,
Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman, Rapeman.
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.