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 Moldova and from Madrid.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 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 Minutemen to the punk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Main Source. All the underground hits.
All Cecil Taylor tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bill Wells record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Dead C record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lalann,
Harpers Bizarre,
Dawn Penn,
The Knickerbockers,
the Normal,
Adolescents,
The New Christs,
10cc,
Terrestrial Tones,
Black Flag,
John Holt,
Dennis Brown,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Leonard Cohen,
Index,
The Golliwogs,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
New Order,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Residents,
Mars,
Barrington Levy,
Jimmy McGriff,
A Certain Ratio,
Blossom Toes,
Groovy Waters,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Rakim,
Eric B and Rakim,
Alison Limerick,
Los Fastidios,
Josef K,
Inner City,
The Seeds,
Piero Umiliani,
Kurtis Blow,
Jeff Lynne,
Danielle Patucci,
The Sisters of Mercy,
8 Eyed Spy,
Jeff Mills,
Crash Course in Science,
Funky Four + One,
La Düsseldorf,
Sexual Harrassment,
Radio Birdman,
Quando Quango,
Country Teasers,
Heaven 17,
Minutemen,
Gerry Rafferty,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Niagra,
The Pretty Things,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Yazoo,
Rufus Thomas,
Parry Music,
Public Enemy,
The Zeros, The Zeros, The Zeros, The Zeros.
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.