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 Bulgaria 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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 sitar 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 The Music Machine to the rap 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 Patti Smith. All the underground hits.
All Barclay James Harvest tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Piero Umiliani record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Bush Tetras,
U.S. Maple,
The Angels of Light,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Soul II Soul,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Standells,
Ken Boothe,
The Dead C,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Funky Four + One,
Fear,
Kerri Chandler,
48th St. Collective,
John Cale,
Crispian St. Peters,
Nick Fraelich,
Soft Cell,
Throbbing Gristle,
Gichy Dan,
Pet Shop Boys,
Ituana,
Wally Richardson,
Gang Green,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
X-Ray Spex,
Albert Ayler,
Henry Cow,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Drexciya,
B.T. Express,
Das Ding,
Lindisfarne,
Pharoah Sanders,
Barry Ungar,
Blossom Toes,
Vladislav Delay,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Eric Copeland,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Gabor Szabo,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Moleskins,
Camouflage,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Jimmy McGriff,
Crooked Eye,
The Monochrome Set,
Joe Smooth,
Quadrant,
Grandmaster Flash,
Stiv Bators,
Television Personalities,
The United States of America,
Skriet,
Graham Central Station,
Minor Threat,
Man Eating Sloth,
Barbara Tucker,
China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis, China Crisis.
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.