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 Botswana and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Bootsy's Rubber Band to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Au Pairs. All the underground hits.
All Man Eating Sloth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joe Finger 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echospace record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Young Marble Giants,
Rufus Thomas,
Minnie Riperton,
Mars,
Robert Hood,
Bootsy Collins,
Wolf Eyes,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Excepter,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
John Foxx,
Popol Vuh,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Black Sheep,
Glenn Branca,
Scrapy,
Youth Brigade,
Chris & Cosey,
John Coltrane,
David McCallum,
Connie Case,
World's Most,
The Offenders,
T.S.O.L.,
The Vogues,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Blues Magoos,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Barry Ungar,
The Sound,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Vladislav Delay,
Warren Ellis,
Aswad,
Michelle Simonal,
Y Pants,
Buzzcocks,
The Invisible,
Lebanon Hanover,
Gang of Four,
The Cure,
Fatback Band,
the Bar-Kays,
Sound Behaviour,
Delta 5,
Tommy Roe,
Reuben Wilson,
Silicon Teens,
Moby Grape,
the Soft Cell,
The Pretty Things,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Tropical Tobacco,
Ken Boothe,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Nation of Ulysses,
Anthony Braxton,
Blake Baxter,
Brick,
Quadrant,
Rhythim Is Rhythim, Rhythim Is Rhythim, Rhythim Is Rhythim, Rhythim Is Rhythim.
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.