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 Finland and from Manila.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 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 Joy Division to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Pet Shop Boys. All the underground hits.
All Bill Wells tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every AZ record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 linndrum and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sad Lovers and Giants record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ituana,
Goldenarms,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Music Machine,
Symarip,
Sight & Sound,
Vainqueur,
The Durutti Column,
The Index,
R.M.O.,
James White and The Blacks,
Cabaret Voltaire,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Leonard Cohen,
The Fall,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Jawbox,
Fugazi,
Patti Smith,
Soft Cell,
Stockholm Monsters,
Von Mondo,
Amon Düül,
Mad Mike,
Black Sheep,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bobby Byrd,
Albert Ayler,
Barry Ungar,
Soul II Soul,
Joy Division,
Rufus Thomas,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Rekid,
DNA,
Sparks,
Alphaville,
The Electric Prunes,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Deadbeat,
The Gun Club,
The Doors,
Scratch Acid,
The Grass Roots,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Busters,
Throbbing Gristle,
New Age Steppers,
Sandy B,
the Soft Cell,
Pulsallama,
Tommy Roe,
Depeche Mode,
The Blackbyrds,
Jesper Dahlback,
Janne Schatter,
Cecil Taylor,
MDC,
Pylon,
Grauzone,
The Searchers, The Searchers, The Searchers, The Searchers.
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.