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 Mauritania and from Lyon.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Fad Gadget 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 The Evens. All the underground hits.
All Outsiders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Junior Murvin record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Altered Images record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radiohead,
Black Moon,
The Star Department,
Symarip,
Unrelated Segments,
The Divine Comedy,
Roy Ayers,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Fall,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Cal Tjader,
Altered Images,
The Wake,
Lindisfarne,
The Black Dice,
The Seeds,
Archie Shepp,
Yusef Lateef,
Echospace,
Harry Pussy,
Interpol,
The J.B.'s,
The Litter,
Ornette Coleman,
Dual Sessions,
Quadrant,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Y Pants,
Byron Stingily,
Bootsy Collins,
Warsaw,
Jeru the Damaja,
John Cale,
Nas,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Velvet Underground,
Drive Like Jehu,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
X-102,
DNA,
Marc Almond,
Marshall Jefferson,
Oneida,
Gregory Isaacs,
ABBA,
Joy Division,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Flesh Eaters,
Mars,
FM Einheit,
Warren Ellis,
Ponytail,
Pagans,
Liliput,
Rufus Thomas,
Todd Rundgren,
Kas Product,
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.