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 Malaysia and from Accra.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Robert Wyatt to the grime kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 John Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All Jacob Miller tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Gang Dance 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 spring reverb and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Zeros record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joy Division,
Sixth Finger,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Los Fastidios,
Isaac Hayes,
Basic Channel,
Can,
Negative Approach,
Yellowson,
Tommy Roe,
Barbara Tucker,
Ludus,
Aaron Thompson,
Terrestrial Tones,
John Holt,
Jesper Dahlback,
Section 25,
Warsaw,
China Crisis,
Ohio Players,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Moleskins,
Alison Limerick,
Deadbeat,
The Associates,
Patti Smith,
Pierre Henry,
T. Rex,
Derrick May,
Frankie Knuckles,
Warren Ellis,
Cameo,
Second Layer,
Reagan Youth,
Radiohead,
The Skatalites,
ABBA,
Masters at Work,
Faust,
Lungfish,
Marcia Griffiths,
Brothers Johnson,
The Cosmic Jokers,
DJ Sneak,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Metal Thangz,
Heaven 17,
The Mummies,
The Gap Band,
Avey Tare,
Circle Jerks,
The Five Americans,
Stockholm Monsters,
Jeru the Damaja,
Faraquet,
Pere Ubu,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
the Bar-Kays,
Whodini,
The Saints,
The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers.
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.