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 Cape Verde and from Shanghai.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 Nile Rodgers 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 Roy Ayers Ubiquity to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Drexciya. All the underground hits.
All Lalann tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joyce Sims 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Victims record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jimmy McGriff,
The Gun Club,
Malaria!,
The Moleskins,
Sound Behaviour,
Joensuu 1685,
Agitation Free,
The Durutti Column,
Lindisfarne,
U.S. Maple,
Bizarre Inc.,
Urselle,
Essential Logic,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Suicide,
Fugazi,
Todd Terry,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Ultimate Spinach,
Flamin' Groovies,
Danielle Patucci,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Sound,
Grey Daturas,
Wolf Eyes,
Minnie Riperton,
Janne Schatter,
Donald Byrd,
Stockholm Monsters,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Dorothy Ashby,
Pole,
Skaos,
Mark Hollis,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Maurizio,
Pantaleimon,
The Barracudas,
Porter Ricks,
The Golliwogs,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Scientists,
Schoolly D,
Public Enemy,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Five Americans,
Unwound,
Gerry Rafferty,
Reagan Youth,
Deakin,
Kool Moe Dee,
Funky Four + One,
Black Flag,
The Slits,
Lou Reed,
Aaron Thompson,
Throbbing Gristle,
Motorama,
Tubeway Army,
Jeru the Damaja,
Wings, Wings, Wings, Wings.
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.