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 Gambia and from New York.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Silicon Teens to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The J.B.'s. All the underground hits.
All The Raincoats tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Offenders 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sugar Minott record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Music Machine,
Negative Approach,
Bobby Sherman,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The American Breed,
New York Dolls,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lyres,
Jeff Lynne,
The Velvet Underground,
The United States of America,
Kurtis Blow,
Albert Ayler,
Yazoo,
a-ha,
Public Enemy,
Gang of Four,
EPMD,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Junior Murvin,
Marc Almond,
Erykah Badu,
Godley & Creme,
Johnny Osbourne,
Drexciya,
Jimmy McGriff,
Stiv Bators,
Von Mondo,
Popol Vuh,
Joey Negro,
Visage,
Little Man,
Spoonie Gee,
Erasure,
Franke,
Agitation Free,
Rites of Spring,
Cymande,
Janne Schatter,
Marine Girls,
These Immortal Souls,
Main Source,
Radiopuhelimet,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Delta 5,
Pharoah Sanders,
Leonard Cohen,
Avey Tare,
Faust,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Suicide,
The Star Department,
The Black Dice,
Marshall Jefferson,
Arcadia,
Amon Düül,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Gap Band,
Half Japanese,
The Last Poets,
Black Pus,
The Moody Blues,
Man Eating Sloth,
Nick Fraelich,
The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things, The Pretty Things.
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.