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 Albania and from Calgary.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Joensuu 1685 to the funk 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 Harpers Bizarre. All the underground hits.
All Pylon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-102 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 rhodes and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Names record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alice Coltrane,
Charles Mingus,
James White and The Blacks,
Altered Images,
Subhumans,
Intrusion,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Moebius,
Interpol,
Al Stewart,
Liliput,
Mars,
The Grass Roots,
Jeff Lynne,
Bobby Womack,
Los Fastidios,
The Skatalites,
X-Ray Spex,
Bill Near,
Robert Görl,
Davy DMX,
Peter & Gordon,
Judy Mowatt,
Gang of Four,
The Fire Engines,
B.T. Express,
Ice-T,
ABC,
Radiohead,
Reuben Wilson,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Saccharine Trust,
Nation of Ulysses,
Delon & Dalcan,
Fatback Band,
Jacques Brel,
Aaron Thompson,
Royal Trux,
Amon Düül II,
The Fortunes,
Deepchord,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Jeru the Damaja,
Schoolly D,
Rod Modell,
The Gap Band,
Blancmange,
Donald Byrd,
Adolescents,
Tomorrow,
The Cure,
PIL,
Brick,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Spandau Ballet,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Lakeside,
Country Joe & The Fish,
OOIOO,
Anakelly,
Fluxion,
Kaleidoscope,
Dorothy Ashby,
Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville, Alphaville.
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.