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 Kyrgyzstan and from Cairo.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Cybotron to the rock kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Basic Channel. All the underground hits.
All The Raincoats tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Deadbeat 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dorothy Ashby record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Bar-Kays,
F. McDonald,
Chrome,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Agent Orange,
Make Up,
Swans,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Litter,
a-ha,
Sällskapet,
Yaz,
MC5,
Susan Cadogan,
Tres Demented,
Altered Images,
Magazine,
Spoonie Gee,
The Grass Roots,
Pagans,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Flamin' Groovies,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Essential Logic,
Mo-Dettes,
Lower 48,
Echospace,
Faust,
Slave,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Basic Channel,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
T.S.O.L.,
Dark Day,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Johnny Clarke,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Bluetip,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Curtis Mayfield,
Robert Hood,
DNA,
Ultimate Spinach,
Angry Samoans,
Sixth Finger,
The Gladiators,
Silicon Teens,
Erasure,
Todd Rundgren,
Mission of Burma,
X-102, X-102, X-102, X-102.
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.