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 Swaziland and from Beijing.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Lyon.
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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the theremin 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 Grandmaster Flash to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Qualms. All the underground hits.
All Tim Buckley tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every UT record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Golliwogs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
ABC,
The Tremeloes,
Desert Stars,
Television Personalities,
Nils Olav,
Young Marble Giants,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Terrestrial Tones,
Lyres,
DJ Sneak,
Eddi Front,
Laurel Aitken,
Rhythm & Sound,
Glenn Branca,
L. Decosne,
Peter and Kerry,
Arthur Verocai,
The Vogues,
Colin Newman,
Soft Machine,
Ornette Coleman,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Durutti Column,
Joy Division,
The Angels of Light,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Marc Almond,
Sugar Minott,
Bobby Hutcherson,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Camouflage,
Television,
Suburban Knight,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Janne Schatter,
X-101,
Arcadia,
Amazonics,
Quadrant,
Mad Mike,
The Five Americans,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Connie Case,
Trumans Water,
Oneida,
The Black Dice,
The Last Poets,
Bob Dylan,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Rites of Spring,
The Golliwogs,
Faust,
Electric Light Orchestra,
DNA,
Gang Green,
Half Japanese,
Public Enemy,
Jacob Miller,
Excepter,
Crispian St. Peters,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill.
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.