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 Latvia and from Hong Kong.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 The Searchers to the rap 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 Kayak. All the underground hits.
All Shuggie Otis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Selecter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Electric Prunes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bluetip,
Sonic Youth,
Vladislav Delay,
The Neon Judgement,
Gang of Four,
Funky Four + One,
Aswad,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Tremeloes,
Colin Newman,
Eve St. Jones,
Hardrive,
Youth Brigade,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Johnny Osbourne,
Steve Hackett,
The Music Machine,
Desert Stars,
Anthony Braxton,
Michelle Simonal,
The Offenders,
Wings,
Sexual Harrassment,
Hoover,
Sällskapet,
Simply Red,
The Cowsills,
Donny Hathaway,
The Toasters,
Cluster,
Absolute Body Control,
Skriet,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Sonny Sharrock,
New Order,
DJ Style,
Black Pus,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Television Personalities,
Big Daddy Kane,
Todd Terry,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Peter & Gordon,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Martian,
Barry Ungar,
Man Eating Sloth,
the Swans,
Chris & Cosey,
Surgeon,
In Retrospect,
B.T. Express,
The Last Poets,
Cal Tjader,
Mantronix,
La Düsseldorf,
Tomorrow,
Pulsallama,
Marcia Griffiths,
Slick Rick,
Jeru the Damaja,
MDC,
Erykah Badu,
Black Moon, Black Moon, Black Moon, Black Moon.
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.