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 Turkey 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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Chris & Cosey to the rap 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 Notorious Big And Bone Thugs. All the underground hits.
All Gang Green tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-Ray Spex record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Move record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Deepchord,
The Litter,
Radio Birdman,
Prince Buster,
The Fall,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Boz Scaggs,
Q and Not U,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Music Machine,
Technova,
Cluster,
The Tremeloes,
Scott Walker,
The Young Rascals,
Mantronix,
The Pretty Things,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Divine Comedy,
Pierre Henry,
E-Dancer,
Delta 5,
LL Cool J,
The Cramps,
Ash Ra Tempel,
the Germs,
Desert Stars,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Toasters,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
This Heat,
Pet Shop Boys,
Althea and Donna,
Frankie Knuckles,
X-Ray Spex,
Ossler,
Marcia Griffiths,
Guru Guru,
Sister Nancy,
Mark Hollis,
Slave,
Kurtis Blow,
Skriet,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Schoolly D,
The Cowsills,
Unwound,
The Vogues,
U.S. Maple,
The Grass Roots,
Quantec,
Nirvana,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Gerry Rafferty,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Crash Course in Science,
Kas Product,
Charles Mingus,
Sandy B,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Albert Ayler,
The Mummies,
Minnie Riperton, Minnie Riperton, Minnie Riperton, Minnie Riperton.
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.