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 Nicaragua and from Houston.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Pop Group to the disco kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Mantronix. All the underground hits.
All David McCallum tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fort Wilson Riot record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 rhodes and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nik Kershaw record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
These Immortal Souls,
Grey Daturas,
The American Breed,
The Monochrome Set,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Robert Hood,
Freddie Wadling,
Susan Cadogan,
Marine Girls,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Eric Copeland,
Unrelated Segments,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Walker Brothers,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Erasure,
The Selecter,
Spandau Ballet,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Gang Gang Dance,
Aaron Thompson,
The Skatalites,
Wolf Eyes,
Flash Fearless,
Chrome,
The Gladiators,
Derrick Morgan,
Kool Moe Dee,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Matthew Bourne,
The Velvet Underground,
Alison Limerick,
Popol Vuh,
Delta 5,
Man Eating Sloth,
Jacques Brel,
Leonard Cohen,
Chris & Cosey,
Marcia Griffiths,
Basic Channel,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Dead C,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Drexciya,
The Durutti Column,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Sonny Sharrock,
Electric Prunes,
Sparks,
Johnny Clarke,
Al Stewart,
FM Einheit,
The Sonics,
The Flesh Eaters,
8 Eyed Spy,
Magazine,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Young Rascals,
Silicon Teens,
Mantronix, Mantronix, Mantronix, Mantronix.
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.