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 Palau and from Taipei.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and New York.
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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Crash Course in Science to the grime 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 Mandrill. All the underground hits.
All Ajijia Myrayebe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lakeside 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cameo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Music Machine,
the Sonics,
Carl Craig,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Television Personalities,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Mandrill,
The Raincoats,
Quando Quango,
Alton Ellis,
Franke,
Q and Not U,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Peter and Kerry,
Stereo Dub,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Knickerbockers,
R.M.O.,
Audionom,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
cv313,
Parry Music,
Adolescents,
The Index,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Associates,
Youth Brigade,
Matthew Halsall,
David McCallum,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Litter,
L. Decosne,
Sex Pistols,
Kas Product,
Thee Headcoats,
Suburban Knight,
the Normal,
Morten Harket,
Groovy Waters,
The Martian,
The Tremeloes,
Hoover,
Tommy Roe,
Ornette Coleman,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Stiv Bators,
Robert Hood,
Faraquet,
Funky Four + One,
Minnie Riperton,
The Blackbyrds,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Cameo,
Sound Behaviour,
Bad Manners,
Siglo XX,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Sonny Sharrock,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Vogues, The Vogues, The Vogues, The Vogues.
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.