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 Rwanda and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 Jakarta and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx to the electroclash 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 Bill Near. All the underground hits.
All Kevin Saunderson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lebanon Hanover record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Spoonie Gee,
Yazoo,
Alice Coltrane,
Second Layer,
Clear Light,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Raincoats,
Nas,
Unwound,
Little Man,
The Doors,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Frankie Knuckles,
Johnny Osbourne,
Rotary Connection,
Royal Trux,
Au Pairs,
the Sonics,
Average White Band,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Erasure,
Arthur Verocai,
Unrelated Segments,
The Star Department,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Isaac Hayes,
Agent Orange,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Last Poets,
China Crisis,
Pet Shop Boys,
Ice-T,
Eric B and Rakim,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Seeds,
The Leaves,
Angry Samoans,
Rufus Thomas,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Grass Roots,
The Wake,
Kenny Larkin,
The Gories,
The Smiths,
Panda Bear,
The Move,
10cc,
Warren Ellis,
Country Teasers,
Quando Quango,
Magma,
Stockholm Monsters,
ABC,
kango's stein massive,
Brand Nubian,
Mantronix,
Bob Dylan,
Crime,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Wasted Youth, Wasted Youth, Wasted Youth, Wasted Youth.
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.