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 Peru and from Manchester.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 A Certain Ratio to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Invisible. All the underground hits.
All Jeff Lynne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Essential Logic record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-101,
Scratch Acid,
PIL,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Davy DMX,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Brand Nubian,
The Fuzztones,
Toni Rubio,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Con Funk Shun,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
the Sonics,
Joy Division,
Arcadia,
Khruangbin,
Bauhaus,
Essential Logic,
Banda Bassotti,
Adolescents,
John Holt,
The Fire Engines,
The Pretty Things,
ABC,
Matthew Bourne,
Terry Callier,
Electric Prunes,
Andrew Hill,
Chris Corsano,
Theoretical Girls,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Boredoms,
Gichy Dan,
Swans,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Laurel Aitken,
EPMD,
Ponytail,
Vladislav Delay,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Happenings,
Silicon Teens,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Lightning Bolt,
Wally Richardson,
The Invisible,
Little Man,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Shuggie Otis,
The Gun Club,
Lou Reed,
Ken Boothe,
Fad Gadget,
Vainqueur,
the Association,
Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection.
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.