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 Guyana and from Toronto.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Spokane.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Aaron Thompson. All the underground hits.
All Slick Rick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jesper Dahlback record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The J.B.'s,
Babytalk,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Barclay James Harvest,
Excepter,
Dorothy Ashby,
Can,
The Mummies,
Spandau Ballet,
Eden Ahbez,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Guru Guru,
Marmalade,
China Crisis,
Interpol,
the Soft Cell,
Sonny Sharrock,
E-Dancer,
X-Ray Spex,
Soft Machine,
Negative Approach,
Gang Gang Dance,
Infiniti,
Kenny Larkin,
Index,
Quantec,
EPMD,
The Cure,
Grandmaster Flash,
Surgeon,
Lucky Dragons,
Intrusion,
Isaac Hayes,
Desert Stars,
Man Parrish,
Piero Umiliani,
The Grass Roots,
Make Up,
The Litter,
Tropical Tobacco,
48th St. Collective,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Grauzone,
Rosa Yemen,
Malaria!,
Vladislav Delay,
The Moody Blues,
The Blackbyrds,
Lyres,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Soul Sonic Force,
T. Rex,
Scientists,
CMW,
The Doors,
Fela Kuti,
Joe Finger,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ornette Coleman,
U.S. Maple,
Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols.
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.