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 Israel and from Johannesburg.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Susan Cadogan to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Ohio Players. All the underground hits.
All Sun City Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sandy B 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Stiv Bators record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gladiators,
Crooked Eye,
Eli Mardock,
Lebanon Hanover,
Accadde A,
Y Pants,
Eddi Front,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Bill Near,
Slave,
the Human League,
Tom Boy,
Boogie Down Productions,
Kool Moe Dee,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Bizarre Inc.,
Ornette Coleman,
Theoretical Girls,
Babytalk,
The Skatalites,
The Beau Brummels,
Juan Atkins,
The Modern Lovers,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Warren Ellis,
Kayak,
DJ Sneak,
Malaria!,
Ronnie Foster,
Von Mondo,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Amon Düül II,
Bronski Beat,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Parry Music,
Jandek,
Eric Copeland,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Cowsills,
Spoonie Gee,
Television Personalities,
Pulsallama,
Leonard Cohen,
The Golliwogs,
Matthew Halsall,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Michelle Simonal,
Black Moon,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Sight & Sound,
Jeff Mills,
Alice Coltrane,
Sparks,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Remains,
Suburban Knight,
The Smiths,
Stereo Dub,
Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin.
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.