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 Tanzania and from Jakarta.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Seoul.
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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 The Smiths to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 the Bar-Kays. All the underground hits.
All Iggy Pop tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Wyatt 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David McCallum,
Johnny Clarke,
The Fuzztones,
Maurizio,
Soft Machine,
The Pretty Things,
Y Pants,
Delta 5,
Avey Tare,
The J.B.'s,
The Slackers,
Eric Dolphy,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Throbbing Gristle,
Subhumans,
Funkadelic,
Pylon,
the Normal,
Babytalk,
The Sound,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Blancmange,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Associates,
The Shadows of Knight,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Tomorrow,
Index,
Spandau Ballet,
Ohio Players,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Cramps,
Freddie Wadling,
Magma,
The Young Rascals,
Morten Harket,
Sun City Girls,
E-Dancer,
Parry Music,
Half Japanese,
MC5,
the Bar-Kays,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Human League,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Cure,
Sparks,
Pantaleimon,
Lalo Schifrin,
Howard Jones,
Bill Near,
Easy Going,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Surgeon,
Guru Guru,
Scan 7,
Flipper,
8 Eyed Spy,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Rites of Spring,
Faraquet,
Technova,
Wally Richardson, Wally Richardson, Wally Richardson, Wally Richardson.
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.