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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Marvin Gaye to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Bill Near. All the underground hits.
All Vladislav Delay tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jesper Dahlback 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Arthur Verocai record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rakim,
Duran Duran,
Agent Orange,
Rosa Yemen,
Funkadelic,
Radio Birdman,
Junior Murvin,
Blake Baxter,
Sun Ra,
Vladislav Delay,
F. McDonald,
Piero Umiliani,
Fatback Band,
Mary Jane Girls,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
X-Ray Spex,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Brass Construction,
Avey Tare,
Surgeon,
The Birthday Party,
Technova,
Roy Ayers,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Leonard Cohen,
8 Eyed Spy,
Erykah Badu,
Hot Snakes,
Flipper,
Slave,
This Heat,
Das Ding,
Desert Stars,
Harmonia,
The Moleskins,
Pylon,
Animal Collective,
The Vogues,
Wire,
Erasure,
Camberwell Now,
Severed Heads,
Outsiders,
The Velvet Underground,
Essential Logic,
Siglo XX,
the Bar-Kays,
The Fuzztones,
Matthew Halsall,
Rekid,
Johnny Osbourne,
Tres Demented,
Todd Rundgren,
Neu!,
Scion,
Alice Coltrane,
Bob Dylan,
Cymande,
Charles Mingus,
Bad Manners,
Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya.
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.