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 Lebanon and from Paris.
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 Paris and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 chamberlin 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the crunk 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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. All the underground hits.
All Cal Tjader tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every New Order 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lalo Schifrin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Josef K,
F. McDonald,
Magma,
Arthur Verocai,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Sun Ra,
Quando Quango,
Piero Umiliani,
Stiv Bators,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Delon & Dalcan,
JFA,
Mo-Dettes,
Young Marble Giants,
Barbara Tucker,
Radiohead,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Sun City Girls,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Model 500,
Monks,
Sonny Sharrock,
Los Fastidios,
Harpers Bizarre,
Pussy Galore,
Ludus,
Moebius,
Vladislav Delay,
X-Ray Spex,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Banda Bassotti,
a-ha,
Monolake,
Whodini,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Toasters,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Robert Hood,
Darondo,
Tears for Fears,
Boz Scaggs,
the Slits,
Black Sheep,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Slick Rick,
Rakim,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Gun Club,
The Music Machine,
Colin Newman,
The Tremeloes,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
B.T. Express,
Flash Fearless,
The Pretty Things,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Joe Smooth,
The Sound,
E-Dancer,
Crime,
Mandrill,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Wire, Wire, Wire, Wire.
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.