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 Kazakhstan and from Columbus.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Star Department. All the underground hits.
All Rites of Spring tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Motions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 a marimba and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a DJ Sneak record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sonny Sharrock,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
DJ Sneak,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Wolf Eyes,
Chrome,
Rakim,
Minutemen,
Sex Pistols,
Alison Limerick,
Gang Gang Dance,
PIL,
Chris Corsano,
Pulsallama,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Walker Brothers,
Lalann,
Kaleidoscope,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Slits,
Suicide,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Red Krayola,
Nas,
Tres Demented,
Babytalk,
the Soft Cell,
Blossom Toes,
Eden Ahbez,
A Certain Ratio,
Sugar Minott,
Crash Course in Science,
The Cure,
Flamin' Groovies,
AZ,
Electric Prunes,
Scion,
Suburban Knight,
The Move,
Motorama,
Smog,
The Vogues,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Ultimate Spinach,
T. Rex,
Leonard Cohen,
Clear Light,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Can,
Robert Görl,
Bad Manners,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Gladiators,
The Skatalites,
Tom Boy,
Robert Hood,
Ponytail,
The Selecter,
The Count Five,
Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians.
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.