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 St Lucia and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 New Order to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Robert Wyatt. All the underground hits.
All Scion tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Country Joe & The Fish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 clarinet and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funky Four + One record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Stockholm Monsters,
Shuggie Otis,
The Evens,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Deadbeat,
The Vogues,
the Slits,
Davy DMX,
Cheater Slicks,
The Buckinghams,
Warsaw,
Bizarre Inc.,
L. Decosne,
Cecil Taylor,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Television Personalities,
Gang Starr,
Amazonics,
Country Teasers,
Kool Moe Dee,
China Crisis,
Neil Young,
Soul Sonic Force,
Morten Harket,
Essential Logic,
Symarip,
Avey Tare,
The Sonics,
UT,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Young Marble Giants,
The Dead C,
Fear,
Stiv Bators,
Whodini,
Pylon,
Colin Newman,
New York Dolls,
Fad Gadget,
This Heat,
Albert Ayler,
Make Up,
Soft Cell,
The Gories,
Index,
The Stooges,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Lebanon Hanover,
Das Ding,
Delon & Dalcan,
Fela Kuti,
Rapeman,
John Holt,
Lindisfarne,
ABBA,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Searchers,
Soft Machine,
Lou Reed,
Yellowson,
Donald Byrd,
Moebius, Moebius, Moebius, Moebius.
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.