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 Kenya and from Houston.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Black Flag to the dance 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 Fatback Band. All the underground hits.
All Cluster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Harpers Bizarre record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pantytec record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Silicon Teens,
MDC,
Black Flag,
Anakelly,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Subhumans,
The Stooges,
Wire,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Dirtbombs,
Electric Light Orchestra,
EPMD,
Todd Terry,
H. Thieme,
Shuggie Otis,
Adolescents,
Little Man,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Hoover,
D'Angelo,
The Divine Comedy,
Roxy Music,
Aswad,
Flash Fearless,
The Move,
A Certain Ratio,
Schoolly D,
The Evens,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Fugs,
Bill Near,
Mark Hollis,
the Fania All-Stars,
Terry Callier,
Agent Orange,
Darondo,
Soulsonic Force,
The Fortunes,
The Slackers,
Mary Jane Girls,
Tomorrow,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Soft Cell,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
10cc,
Scratch Acid,
Ultimate Spinach,
Inner City,
Pantytec,
The Toasters,
The Standells,
The Blackbyrds,
Country Teasers,
Animal Collective,
PIL,
The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible.
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.