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 Libya and from Bologna.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Al Stewart to the rock 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 The Toasters. All the underground hits.
All Glenn Branca tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Hutcherson 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 a güiro and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Byron Stingily record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gabor Szabo,
Big Daddy Kane,
Grey Daturas,
The Walker Brothers,
Sister Nancy,
New Order,
Oblivians,
CMW,
Aaron Thompson,
Slave,
The Blues Magoos,
In Retrospect,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Evens,
Kas Product,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Avey Tare,
The Golliwogs,
Dennis Brown,
Rites of Spring,
The Velvet Underground,
Throbbing Gristle,
Stereo Dub,
Nils Olav,
The Vogues,
The Cramps,
The Human League,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Procol Harum,
Pierre Henry,
The Doobie Brothers,
Smog,
Porter Ricks,
Grauzone,
China Crisis,
Quando Quango,
Massinfluence,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Nation of Ulysses,
MC5,
Johnny Clarke,
Funkadelic,
Kool Moe Dee,
Alice Coltrane,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Mad Mike,
Wire,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Scion,
Anakelly,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Tubeway Army,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Moody Blues,
The Leaves,
Main Source,
Suicide,
Robert Wyatt,
Whodini, Whodini, Whodini, Whodini.
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.