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 Mauritius and from Manchester.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the theremin 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 Sexual Harrassment to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Jerry Gold Smith. All the underground hits.
All Yellowson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Carl Craig record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brick record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Rekid,
Slave,
Warsaw,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Scan 7,
The Kinks,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Royal Trux,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Echospace,
Con Funk Shun,
Kenny Larkin,
Scrapy,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Star Department,
Accadde A,
Radiopuhelimet,
Bobby Womack,
Jimmy McGriff,
Freddie Wadling,
Terry Callier,
Peter & Gordon,
Swell Maps,
Dual Sessions,
Siglo XX,
Blancmange,
The Mummies,
The Zeros,
Rosa Yemen,
Junior Murvin,
Marmalade,
Eric Dolphy,
Eden Ahbez,
The Dave Clark Five,
Marine Girls,
Moss Icon,
Adolescents,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Jerry's Kids,
Donny Hathaway,
The Misunderstood,
Spandau Ballet,
Loose Ends,
Aural Exciters,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Jeff Lynne,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Qualms,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Massinfluence,
Black Moon,
Severed Heads,
Eric Copeland,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
cv313,
The Golliwogs,
Simply Red,
Grauzone,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Rapeman,
CMW,
Rhythm & Sound,
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.