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 Laos and from Seoul.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Josef K to the techno 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 Tropical Tobacco. All the underground hits.
All Angry Samoans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yellowson 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 synthesizer and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ponytail record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ponytail,
The Last Poets,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Scrapy,
Monks,
Man Eating Sloth,
Rod Modell,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
the Normal,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Marcia Griffiths,
Kas Product,
Black Moon,
Fluxion,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Al Stewart,
K-Klass,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Youth Brigade,
Matthew Bourne,
Nico,
Siglo XX,
Althea and Donna,
Severed Heads,
Gang Green,
Graham Central Station,
Marshall Jefferson,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Barclay James Harvest,
Basic Channel,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Eli Mardock,
Mission of Burma,
The Young Rascals,
Nils Olav,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Robert Hood,
Funky Four + One,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Kevin Saunderson,
Alison Limerick,
The Grass Roots,
New Order,
June Days,
Make Up,
Neil Young,
Flipper,
Stereo Dub,
the Sonics,
Royal Trux,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Eve St. Jones,
Harmonia,
Tubeway Army,
Bobby Womack,
The Skatalites,
Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps.
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.