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 Mali and from Glasgow.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 La Düsseldorf to the electroclash 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 Brick. All the underground hits.
All The Cowsills tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Toasters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fifty Foot Hose record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Juan Atkins,
X-101,
Magazine,
Maurizio,
Underground Resistance,
OOIOO,
The Associates,
The Monochrome Set,
Zero Boys,
Gang Gang Dance,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Echospace,
Janne Schatter,
JFA,
Zapp,
One Last Wish,
Amon Düül,
The Blackbyrds,
Ponytail,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Alice Coltrane,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Laurel Aitken,
Japan,
Pagans,
The Tremeloes,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Alarm Clocks,
Young Marble Giants,
Pharoah Sanders,
Simply Red,
Godley & Creme,
Ten City,
Iggy Pop,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Funkadelic,
Piero Umiliani,
Joyce Sims,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fela Kuti,
Camouflage,
Prince Buster,
Ronan,
The Residents,
Pussy Galore,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Brick,
Derrick May,
CMW,
Con Funk Shun,
Von Mondo,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Tears for Fears,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Altered Images,
Qualms,
Aaron Thompson,
Jacob Miller,
The Sonics,
Crooked Eye,
Shoche,
Pulsallama,
Jesper Dahlback,
Lou Christie,
KRS-One, KRS-One, KRS-One, KRS-One.
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.