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 South Africa and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the guitar 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 The Chocolate Watch Band to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Rosa Yemen. All the underground hits.
All The Last Poets tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pussy Galore record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Music Machine record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Judy Mowatt,
The Selecter,
MDC,
Letta Mbulu,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Sight & Sound,
Erasure,
In Retrospect,
The Buckinghams,
Agitation Free,
Bad Manners,
Mandrill,
Underground Resistance,
EPMD,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Crash Course in Science,
Radiohead,
Kerri Chandler,
Pharoah Sanders,
Rekid,
Livin' Joy,
The Residents,
Quantec,
Albert Ayler,
Dave Gahan,
The Monks,
Pagans,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
the Swans,
The Fuzztones,
Dark Day,
Rakim,
Fad Gadget,
Lightning Bolt,
Drexciya,
Arab on Radar,
Saccharine Trust,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Neu!,
a-ha,
Robert Görl,
Sugar Minott,
Barrington Levy,
Lee Hazlewood,
Radiopuhelimet,
Crispian St. Peters,
Pussy Galore,
Magazine,
The Cramps,
The Vogues,
Sonic Youth,
Eurythmics,
China Crisis,
The Toasters,
Josef K,
Hashim, Hashim, Hashim, Hashim.
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.