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 Germany and from Lagos.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the snare 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 Jesper Dahlback to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Kaleidoscope. All the underground hits.
All Duran Duran tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Monks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Carl Craig record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Depeche Mode,
Half Japanese,
Masters at Work,
Pharoah Sanders,
Cal Tjader,
The Seeds,
Eden Ahbez,
The Skatalites,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
the Human League,
Scrapy,
New Age Steppers,
Barry Ungar,
Underground Resistance,
One Last Wish,
Sun City Girls,
David McCallum,
Glenn Branca,
Jeff Mills,
Kurtis Blow,
Interpol,
Mark Hollis,
X-Ray Spex,
Pantytec,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Slits,
Janne Schatter,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Moss Icon,
Jerry's Kids,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Bad Manners,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Moby Grape,
Metal Thangz,
Black Flag,
PIL,
The Grass Roots,
Flash Fearless,
Malaria!,
Slave,
Lou Christie,
The Dave Clark Five,
Shuggie Otis,
The Fall,
Marine Girls,
Albert Ayler,
Roxette,
Henry Cow,
Cheater Slicks,
Big Daddy Kane,
Robert Görl,
Das Ding,
The Real Kids,
Skaos,
Wire,
Radiohead,
Pagans, Pagans, Pagans, Pagans.
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.