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 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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the snare 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 Bluetip to the techno 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 Echospace. All the underground hits.
All DeepChord presents Echospace tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flipper 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The American Breed record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Saccharine Trust,
Fad Gadget,
PIL,
Minor Threat,
Pharoah Sanders,
James White and The Blacks,
Basic Channel,
Joensuu 1685,
Bang On A Can,
Sound Behaviour,
Barbara Tucker,
F. McDonald,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Duran Duran,
Morten Harket,
The Victims,
Charles Mingus,
Porter Ricks,
Barry Ungar,
Dead Boys,
The Blues Magoos,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Cymande,
The Monochrome Set,
Joey Negro,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Howard Jones,
The Smoke,
Oneida,
Robert Wyatt,
the Swans,
The Durutti Column,
a-ha,
The Toasters,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Gun Club,
Brothers Johnson,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Girls At Our Best!,
Steve Hackett,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Black Dice,
Severed Heads,
Quantec,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Suburban Knight,
Von Mondo,
Ken Boothe,
Accadde A,
Excepter,
Spandau Ballet,
Amazonics,
Marcia Griffiths,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Average White Band,
Camberwell Now,
The Tremeloes,
Davy DMX,
Main Source,
Funkadelic,
Matthew Bourne, Matthew Bourne, Matthew Bourne, Matthew Bourne.
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.