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 Belgium and from Accra.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 H. Thieme to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Yazoo. All the underground hits.
All Kenny Larkin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sound Behaviour record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 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 The Doors record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sly & The Family Stone,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Siglo XX,
Alphaville,
The Sound,
The Kinks,
Sound Behaviour,
Cecil Taylor,
Eden Ahbez,
Dead Boys,
Hardrive,
Ultravox,
the Normal,
EPMD,
The Moody Blues,
Chrome,
Erasure,
Sällskapet,
The Leaves,
Main Source,
Cybotron,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Frankie Knuckles,
Mantronix,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Black Dice,
Yazoo,
Organ,
John Coltrane,
Nirvana,
June Days,
The Golliwogs,
Delon & Dalcan,
JFA,
The Gories,
Flash Fearless,
Sonny Sharrock,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Cymande,
The Seeds,
L. Decosne,
The Real Kids,
Gang Gang Dance,
A Flock of Seagulls,
U.S. Maple,
Sugar Minott,
Peter and Kerry,
Basic Channel,
Joensuu 1685,
Joy Division,
Blossom Toes,
The United States of America,
Piero Umiliani,
Slick Rick,
Kurtis Blow,
Wasted Youth,
Throbbing Gristle,
Grauzone,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Laurel Aitken,
Sam Rivers,
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan.
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.