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 Mongolia and from Jakarta.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Johannesburg.
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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Ossler to the rock 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Sparks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every E-Dancer 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dark Day record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dark Day,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Silicon Teens,
Todd Terry,
Icehouse,
Das Ding,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Moody Blues,
Davy DMX,
Robert Wyatt,
Tears for Fears,
The Knickerbockers,
Flash Fearless,
Vladislav Delay,
The Monks,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Bizarre Inc.,
Public Enemy,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Jerry's Kids,
Michelle Simonal,
Technova,
Unwound,
The Gap Band,
Sixth Finger,
The Flesh Eaters,
Marine Girls,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Mo-Dettes,
Stockholm Monsters,
Prince Buster,
Funkadelic,
Blancmange,
Quadrant,
Maurizio,
The Star Department,
The Saints,
Lower 48,
EPMD,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Dead C,
PIL,
Ohio Players,
Guru Guru,
The Young Rascals,
Kurtis Blow,
Massinfluence,
Popol Vuh,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Aswad,
Tim Buckley,
Echospace,
Scrapy,
Magma,
Marvin Gaye,
Minutemen,
F. McDonald,
DJ Style,
A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio.
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.