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 Israel and from Manchester.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the snare 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 Sixth Finger to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Urselle. All the underground hits.
All The Techniques tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Leaves record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobby Hutcherson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cluster,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Velvet Underground,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Searchers,
KRS-One,
Porter Ricks,
the Sonics,
Soft Cell,
Marc Almond,
Sexual Harrassment,
the Slits,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Dual Sessions,
The Blues Magoos,
Thee Headcoats,
Radio Birdman,
The Misunderstood,
Pole,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Derrick May,
The Gladiators,
Vainqueur,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Durutti Column,
Organ,
Barry Ungar,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Sisters of Mercy,
World's Most,
Tropical Tobacco,
These Immortal Souls,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Skaos,
Erasure,
The J.B.'s,
Mantronix,
Jesper Dahlback,
Bronski Beat,
DJ Style,
Harry Pussy,
Franke,
Can,
The Detroit Cobras,
Blake Baxter,
The Angels of Light,
Black Moon,
The Divine Comedy,
Von Mondo,
48th St. Collective,
Robert Wyatt,
Bobbi Humphrey,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Donald Byrd,
Public Enemy,
Swans,
LL Cool J,
The Barracudas,
Isaac Hayes,
Kayak,
Crispy Ambulance,
Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen.
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.