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 Lagos.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Joensuu 1685 to the grime 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 Juan Atkins. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra Arkestra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sly & The Family Stone 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Andrew Hill record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wolf Eyes,
Morten Harket,
The Velvet Underground,
Swell Maps,
Jawbox,
The Raincoats,
E-Dancer,
James White and The Blacks,
Sun Ra,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Lou Christie,
Rufus Thomas,
The Leaves,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Black Flag,
Essential Logic,
Sight & Sound,
Ultimate Spinach,
Faust,
DJ Sneak,
Sexual Harrassment,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Seeds,
The Busters,
Jandek,
The Golliwogs,
the Slits,
The Monks,
The Grass Roots,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ice-T,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Marine Girls,
Excepter,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Durutti Column,
Amon Düül II,
Nirvana,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Davy DMX,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Marcia Griffiths,
Pantaleimon,
48th St. Collective,
Kas Product,
Kerrie Biddell,
the Bar-Kays,
John Lydon,
Soulsonic Force,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Silicon Teens,
Isaac Hayes,
Saccharine Trust,
Adolescents,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Agitation Free,
Khruangbin,
Derrick May,
Kenny Larkin,
Stiv Bators,
Peter and Kerry,
Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead.
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.