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 Kuwait and from Bremen.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Cheater Slicks to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Sixth Finger. All the underground hits.
All Matthew Halsall tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stetsasonic record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Happenings record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Sheep,
Simply Red,
Jandek,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Man Parrish,
Matthew Halsall,
The Raincoats,
The Mummies,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Lyres,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Magazine,
Derrick Morgan,
Groovy Waters,
Ituana,
Organ,
Index,
Lakeside,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Marmalade,
Visage,
MDC,
Iggy Pop,
Roxette,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Barracudas,
Cecil Taylor,
Bizarre Inc.,
Warren Ellis,
Junior Murvin,
The Pretty Things,
Little Man,
Vladislav Delay,
Scratch Acid,
Robert Görl,
Tom Boy,
Panda Bear,
the Fania All-Stars,
Fluxion,
Moebius,
The Moody Blues,
The Beau Brummels,
Pylon,
UT,
Hasil Adkins,
The Fire Engines,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Black Bananas,
The Slits,
Funkadelic,
Black Flag,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
the Bar-Kays,
Faust,
DJ Sneak,
The Skatalites,
Lower 48,
Fat Boys,
Mission of Burma,
Hardrive,
Royal Trux,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Hoover, Hoover, Hoover, Hoover.
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.