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 Vietnam and from Milan.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 arpeggiator 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 Sarah Menescal to the rap 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 Morten Harket. All the underground hits.
All Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hot Snakes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kango’s Stein Massive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hoover,
The Durutti Column,
The Zeros,
Metal Thangz,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Magazine,
Von Mondo,
Japan,
Sex Pistols,
Soft Machine,
R.M.O.,
Delta 5,
Cecil Taylor,
DNA,
The Residents,
The Litter,
Loose Ends,
Shoche,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Lee Hazlewood,
Ludus,
Section 25,
The Count Five,
Talk Talk,
PIL,
Scott Walker,
Isaac Hayes,
The Gladiators,
Dorothy Ashby,
Franke,
Intrusion,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Selecter,
The Slits,
Das Ding,
ABBA,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Icehouse,
Clear Light,
Bill Wells,
Sugar Minott,
Connie Case,
The Buckinghams,
Tubeway Army,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Underground Resistance,
The Fugs,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Gang Green,
the Swans,
This Heat,
The Dave Clark Five,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Laurel Aitken,
Joey Negro,
Second Layer,
Make Up,
The Index,
Little Man,
Deakin,
the Slits,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Roy Ayers,
The Dead C, The Dead C, The Dead C, The Dead C.
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.