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 Indonesia and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Barrington Levy to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Young Marble Giants. All the underground hits.
All Con Funk Shun tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Count Five 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a DNA record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jerry Gold Smith,
10cc,
Max Romeo,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Associates,
Nico,
Underground Resistance,
Soulsonic Force,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Shuggie Otis,
Don Cherry,
Jeff Mills,
The Offenders,
Babytalk,
Essential Logic,
Sun Ra,
Monolake,
Eyeless In Gaza,
This Heat,
Panda Bear,
the Association,
Tom Boy,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Sound Behaviour,
Cybotron,
Inner City,
The Grass Roots,
Q and Not U,
Scientists,
The Sonics,
The Skatalites,
The Residents,
Matthew Bourne,
the Normal,
Infiniti,
Graham Central Station,
Parry Music,
Nirvana,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Schoolly D,
Amon Düül II,
Slick Rick,
Bob Dylan,
The Cowsills,
Radiohead,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Misunderstood,
Soul II Soul,
The Alarm Clocks,
Barbara Tucker,
FM Einheit,
The Knickerbockers,
Connie Case,
Adolescents,
Sarah Menescal,
Brick,
The Zeros,
Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw.
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.