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 Maldives and from Delhi.
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 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Saccharine Trust to the disco kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 X-101. All the underground hits.
All Eric Dolphy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every MC5 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Model 500 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Symarip,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Rapeman,
Maurizio,
Aloha Tigers,
The Golliwogs,
Zapp,
Toni Rubio,
Dual Sessions,
the Bar-Kays,
Alton Ellis,
Camberwell Now,
Zero Boys,
Wally Richardson,
Motorama,
Magazine,
Iggy Pop,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Brick,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Modern Lovers,
Boredoms,
Kool Moe Dee,
Archie Shepp,
James Chance & The Contortions,
DNA,
Cheater Slicks,
Michelle Simonal,
Sun City Girls,
Sly & The Family Stone,
John Lydon,
T. Rex,
The Fuzztones,
New Order,
Shoche,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Litter,
Yellowson,
David Axelrod,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Hot Snakes,
Lalann,
The Slackers,
Grandmaster Flash,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Kaleidoscope,
The Angels of Light,
The Dave Clark Five,
Duran Duran,
Swell Maps,
Harry Pussy,
Yaz,
Byron Stingily,
The Sonics,
Hardrive,
Goldenarms,
Funky Four + One,
Connie Case, Connie Case, Connie Case, Connie Case.
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.