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 Madagascar and from Mumbai.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Houston.
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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the 808 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 Franke to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Monks. All the underground hits.
All The Gun Club tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grauzone 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ultravox,
Slave,
The Fortunes,
Unrelated Segments,
The Mummies,
The Walker Brothers,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Camberwell Now,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
PIL,
Reagan Youth,
Glenn Branca,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Traffic Nightmare,
Gong,
The Shadows of Knight,
Matthew Halsall,
Jesper Dahlback,
Joe Smooth,
The American Breed,
Terrestrial Tones,
Radiopuhelimet,
Pole,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Simply Red,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Agitation Free,
Tubeway Army,
Aloha Tigers,
Boz Scaggs,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Essential Logic,
Mission of Burma,
Jawbox,
The Durutti Column,
Black Pus,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Evens,
Rakim,
June Days,
La Düsseldorf,
Yaz,
Niagra,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Slick Rick,
The Move,
The Martian,
Eurythmics,
Eve St. Jones,
Roxette,
Television,
Gang Gang Dance,
Donny Hathaway,
Robert Wyatt,
ABC,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Ten City,
Ituana,
Man Eating Sloth,
Girls At Our Best!, Girls At Our Best!, Girls At Our Best!, Girls At Our Best!.
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.