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 Comoros and from Paris.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the güiro 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 ABBA to the rock 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 Last Poets. All the underground hits.
All Funkadelic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Busters 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mission of Burma record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Foxx,
ABBA,
The Moleskins,
The Evens,
Buzzcocks,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Eve St. Jones,
the Bar-Kays,
Robert Wyatt,
Eddi Front,
Soulsonic Force,
Carl Craig,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Gun Club,
Alice Coltrane,
The Litter,
Rites of Spring,
June of 44,
Mission of Burma,
Angry Samoans,
The Detroit Cobras,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Young Marble Giants,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Isaac Hayes,
Grauzone,
Joe Smooth,
Jacob Miller,
Glambeats Corp.,
Lou Christie,
Arab on Radar,
The Divine Comedy,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Sällskapet,
Roxy Music,
The United States of America,
Rhythm & Sound,
Goldenarms,
Barbara Tucker,
Thompson Twins,
48th St. Collective,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Model 500,
Saccharine Trust,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Icehouse,
Alison Limerick,
Ken Boothe,
Crime,
Camouflage,
The Blackbyrds,
Sixth Finger,
Hardrive,
Soul II Soul,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Walker Brothers,
Arthur Verocai,
The Searchers,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Michelle Simonal,
The Dead C,
Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators.
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.