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 Estonia and from Lagos.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
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 Zapp to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Sun Ra. All the underground hits.
All The Walker Brothers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roy Ayers 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 linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Sonics 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?
The Fire Engines,
Eddi Front,
Tom Boy,
Unrelated Segments,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Young Marble Giants,
Q65,
Surgeon,
Suburban Knight,
Delta 5,
Swell Maps,
Shuggie Otis,
Henry Cow,
Marvin Gaye,
Glenn Branca,
Crime,
Man Eating Sloth,
Electric Prunes,
Jesper Dahlback,
Erasure,
Model 500,
the Bar-Kays,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Loose Ends,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
John Lydon,
T.S.O.L.,
The Birthday Party,
Panda Bear,
Alison Limerick,
Rapeman,
Agent Orange,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Count Five,
The United States of America,
X-102,
Todd Rundgren,
DNA,
In Retrospect,
Drexciya,
The Sonics,
K-Klass,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Agitation Free,
cv313,
Andrew Hill,
The Index,
Rakim,
Rekid,
Country Teasers,
PIL,
Minnie Riperton,
Josef K,
John Foxx,
Fad Gadget,
Underground Resistance,
June of 44,
Easy Going,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.