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 Peru and from Winnipeg.
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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Joe Smooth to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Urselle. All the underground hits.
All Barclay James Harvest tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Deepchord record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Grass Roots record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro 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 Vogues,
The Fall,
Talk Talk,
Grey Daturas,
Blancmange,
The Move,
the Bar-Kays,
The Human League,
Television Personalities,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Nation of Ulysses,
B.T. Express,
Cabaret Voltaire,
La Düsseldorf,
The Star Department,
Sonic Youth,
Warsaw,
Sound Behaviour,
Wire,
Bang On A Can,
Brothers Johnson,
Metal Thangz,
Blake Baxter,
Lebanon Hanover,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
R.M.O.,
The Residents,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
David Bowie,
cv313,
Crime,
Yellowson,
X-102,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Davy DMX,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Sällskapet,
Eli Mardock,
Gang Starr,
Faraquet,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
June of 44,
Big Daddy Kane,
Reagan Youth,
Colin Newman,
Dawn Penn,
Soft Machine,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Music Machine,
David McCallum,
The Skatalites,
The Saints,
The Wake,
Dennis Brown,
Funky Four + One,
Howard Jones,
The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible.
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.