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 Tuvalu and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 mellotron 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 X-Ray Spex to the grunge 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 Flash Fearless. All the underground hits.
All Radiohead tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Whodini 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alton Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Suburban Knight,
Fluxion,
Lindisfarne,
Khruangbin,
Throbbing Gristle,
Bill Near,
Young Marble Giants,
Jandek,
Little Man,
Delon & Dalcan,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Pole,
Bobby Byrd,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Misunderstood,
Brothers Johnson,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Searchers,
Lower 48,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Fatback Band,
Massinfluence,
Procol Harum,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Sun Ra,
Rod Modell,
Idris Muhammad,
Cheater Slicks,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
H. Thieme,
Johnny Clarke,
Radiohead,
Glenn Branca,
John Lydon,
Hashim,
In Retrospect,
Skaos,
Radio Birdman,
The Buckinghams,
Jeru the Damaja,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Das Ding,
Dorothy Ashby,
Robert Görl,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Fear,
Thompson Twins,
Underground Resistance,
Man Eating Sloth,
Drexciya,
Shoche,
Goldenarms,
Ralphi Rosario,
Dual Sessions,
Duran Duran,
Laurel Aitken,
Peter & Gordon,
the Normal,
Soul II Soul,
The Birthday Party,
The Kinks,
Ice-T,
Maleditus Sound,
Ossler, Ossler, Ossler, Ossler.
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.