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 Rwanda 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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Jesper Dahlbäck to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Sunsets and Hearts. All the underground hits.
All Kurtis Blow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Todd Terry 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Al Stewart record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Vainqueur,
K-Klass,
The Victims,
Clear Light,
Althea and Donna,
The Smiths,
Young Marble Giants,
Mars,
UT,
Jerry's Kids,
Infiniti,
Gichy Dan,
The Beau Brummels,
Hoover,
Yusef Lateef,
Eurythmics,
John Holt,
Circle Jerks,
Grey Daturas,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
David McCallum,
Moby Grape,
Mo-Dettes,
Kurtis Blow,
Cheater Slicks,
James White and The Blacks,
Connie Case,
Intrusion,
The Doors,
Boogie Down Productions,
Country Teasers,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Blake Baxter,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Junior Murvin,
Moebius,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Arab on Radar,
The Count Five,
Q and Not U,
Jandek,
U.S. Maple,
Wolf Eyes,
10cc,
Bronski Beat,
The Barracudas,
Ultra Naté,
Brothers Johnson,
Davy DMX,
Depeche Mode,
Cal Tjader,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Sam Rivers,
The Human League,
Warsaw,
Kevin Saunderson,
Glambeats Corp.,
Black Sheep,
X-101,
Buzzcocks,
DNA, DNA, DNA, DNA.
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.