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 Zimbabwe and from Portland.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Shanghai.
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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Gary Puckett & The Union Gap to the dance kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Hashim. All the underground hits.
All Absolute Body Control tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Frankie Knuckles record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 808 and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wally Richardson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Last Poets,
Jeff Mills,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Judy Mowatt,
The Seeds,
Royal Trux,
Joy Division,
Stereo Dub,
Porter Ricks,
The Count Five,
Sex Pistols,
B.T. Express,
Janne Schatter,
Deadbeat,
Heaven 17,
Pet Shop Boys,
Marine Girls,
Reuben Wilson,
Anthony Braxton,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Nik Kershaw,
Dual Sessions,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Black Pus,
Don Cherry,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Rakim,
Surgeon,
Donny Hathaway,
Terrestrial Tones,
Lalo Schifrin,
Aural Exciters,
Make Up,
Minor Threat,
Simply Red,
Quantec,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Hoover,
The Walker Brothers,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Cal Tjader,
The Real Kids,
Soft Machine,
Negative Approach,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Wally Richardson,
Rod Modell,
The New Christs,
Organ,
X-102,
Soul II Soul,
The Golliwogs,
R.M.O.,
The Alarm Clocks,
Urselle,
Throbbing Gristle,
Ken Boothe,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, The Doobie Brothers.
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.