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 Kazakhstan and from Lille.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sugar Minott. All the underground hits.
All The Saints tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Human League record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lalann record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Walker Brothers,
Gang of Four,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Robert Wyatt,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Unrelated Segments,
FM Einheit,
a-ha,
Pole,
Sparks,
Outsiders,
The Black Dice,
Avey Tare,
Yazoo,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Urselle,
Donny Hathaway,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Moby Grape,
The Divine Comedy,
Eden Ahbez,
Arcadia,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Mo-Dettes,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Smoke,
Delon & Dalcan,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Jawbox,
Inner City,
Slave,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Marine Girls,
Banda Bassotti,
H. Thieme,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Human League,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
PIL,
Tommy Roe,
Darondo,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Deakin,
Lee Hazlewood,
Derrick May,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Stereo Dub,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Angels of Light,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Slits,
The Saints,
Joy Division,
World's Most,
Black Moon,
Graham Central Station,
Pantaleimon,
the Slits,
DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak, DJ Sneak.
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.