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 Samoa and from Philadelphia.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 The Selecter to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The Alarm Clocks. All the underground hits.
All The Gap Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Maurizio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 sitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cowsills record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin 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 Slits,
Negative Approach,
Roy Ayers,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
E-Dancer,
Cheater Slicks,
Niagra,
Little Man,
Smog,
Porter Ricks,
Leonard Cohen,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Frankie Knuckles,
Dark Day,
Mark Hollis,
Ten City,
Max Romeo,
Robert Hood,
Graham Central Station,
The Birthday Party,
Skaos,
The Index,
Peter and Kerry,
Jacques Brel,
The Electric Prunes,
Bronski Beat,
Thee Headcoats,
The Young Rascals,
Accadde A,
Soft Cell,
Ossler,
the Soft Cell,
Eric Copeland,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Sugar Minott,
The Shadows of Knight,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Warsaw,
Los Fastidios,
The Happenings,
Harmonia,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
KRS-One,
Suicide,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Schoolly D,
Hardrive,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Gun Club,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Smoke,
Pagans,
Subhumans,
Alphaville,
Michelle Simonal,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Misunderstood,
Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash.
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.