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 Haiti and from Tehran.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Man Parrish to the jazz 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 The Jesus and Mary Chain. All the underground hits.
All The Blackbyrds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Patti Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soul II Soul record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alison Limerick,
Franke,
The Wake,
Chris & Cosey,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Sonny Sharrock,
Guru Guru,
Judy Mowatt,
Scion,
the Bar-Kays,
Can,
The Gun Club,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Fela Kuti,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Skatalites,
EPMD,
Sexual Harrassment,
Blancmange,
Gong,
London Community Gospel Choir,
These Immortal Souls,
Von Mondo,
The Kinks,
Jeff Lynne,
The Fall,
Pere Ubu,
Lalo Schifrin,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Marine Girls,
One Last Wish,
Masters at Work,
Juan Atkins,
Connie Case,
Black Moon,
Intrusion,
X-101,
Loose Ends,
Chris Corsano,
The Modern Lovers,
Gregory Isaacs,
Marc Almond,
Tom Boy,
Agitation Free,
The Velvet Underground,
Lucky Dragons,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Jimmy McGriff,
Kevin Saunderson,
Essential Logic,
New Age Steppers,
the Swans,
Robert Hood,
Vladislav Delay,
Black Bananas,
David McCallum,
Nirvana,
Bobby Byrd,
Wire,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Pretty Things,
Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic.
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.