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 Ethiopia and from Tehran.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 clarinet 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 Q and Not U to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Oppenheimer Analysis. All the underground hits.
All Louis and Bebe Barron tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Aloha Tigers 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Vladislav Delay record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
B.T. Express,
The Smiths,
The Grass Roots,
Public Enemy,
The Fall,
Sugar Minott,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The United States of America,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Big Daddy Kane,
Eddi Front,
Anthony Braxton,
Absolute Body Control,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Curtis Mayfield,
Quantec,
L. Decosne,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Dave Gahan,
The Pretty Things,
Lakeside,
Massinfluence,
the Slits,
The Monochrome Set,
Aural Exciters,
Duran Duran,
Television,
Peter and Kerry,
Eric Dolphy,
Sex Pistols,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Seeds,
Groovy Waters,
The Cowsills,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Vladislav Delay,
Barbara Tucker,
Franke,
Tears for Fears,
Terry Callier,
Severed Heads,
Basic Channel,
Barry Ungar,
Silicon Teens,
E-Dancer,
Cymande,
Toni Rubio,
Icehouse,
Aaron Thompson,
Amon Düül II,
Young Marble Giants,
Liliput,
Deadbeat,
Slick Rick,
CMW,
Little Man,
Rites of Spring,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Eli Mardock,
Radiopuhelimet,
the Association,
Stereo Dub,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Pole, Pole, Pole, Pole.
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.