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 Tuvalu and from Toronto.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 David McCallum to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Idris Muhammad. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Los Fastidios record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronnie Foster record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Starr,
The Last Poets,
The Moleskins,
The Cramps,
Excepter,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Patti Smith,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Animal Collective,
Tommy Roe,
The Velvet Underground,
Terry Callier,
The Cosmic Jokers,
8 Eyed Spy,
Lou Christie,
Symarip,
Johnny Osbourne,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Essential Logic,
Trumans Water,
Theoretical Girls,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Gap Band,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Kurtis Blow,
Barrington Levy,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
X-102,
The Smoke,
New Order,
The Music Machine,
the Germs,
Liliput,
Brick,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Cal Tjader,
PIL,
Harmonia,
Roxy Music,
The Monochrome Set,
Byron Stingily,
Swans,
Albert Ayler,
The Trojans,
Camouflage,
T.S.O.L.,
Shoche,
Rapeman,
Sandy B,
The Leaves,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Tremeloes,
The Cure,
Technova,
China Crisis,
Panda Bear,
Eric Copeland,
John Lydon,
The Black Dice,
The Evens,
Zapp,
Arthur Verocai, Arthur Verocai, Arthur Verocai, Arthur Verocai.
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.