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 Libya and from Lyon.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Selector Dub Narcotic. All the underground hits.
All Blake Baxter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Subhumans 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sällskapet record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Accadde A,
Circle Jerks,
Henry Cow,
Amon Düül,
Scrapy,
Soul II Soul,
Black Bananas,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Music Machine,
Rekid,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Nils Olav,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Pere Ubu,
The Tremeloes,
Ronan,
Godley & Creme,
Crispian St. Peters,
Gichy Dan,
Barry Ungar,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Delon & Dalcan,
World's Most,
Heaven 17,
Technova,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Steve Hackett,
Yusef Lateef,
MC5,
Tommy Roe,
Letta Mbulu,
The Cramps,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Colin Newman,
Connie Case,
Kerri Chandler,
the Association,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Altered Images,
The Black Dice,
Khruangbin,
Whodini,
The Techniques,
Lower 48,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Harry Pussy,
Soul Sonic Force,
Adolescents,
James White and The Blacks,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Skaos,
Patti Smith,
The Smiths,
Erykah Badu,
Gerry Rafferty,
Idris Muhammad,
Echospace,
Nick Fraelich,
the Germs,
Hashim,
Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya, Drexciya.
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.