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 Cyprus and from Toronto.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Scion to the funk 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 The Smiths. All the underground hits.
All Steve Hackett tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lee Hazlewood 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sight & Sound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Public Enemy,
the Fania All-Stars,
Groovy Waters,
JFA,
Von Mondo,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Wire,
Drexciya,
Derrick May,
E-Dancer,
Shuggie Otis,
The Barracudas,
Lightning Bolt,
Infiniti,
Prince Buster,
La Düsseldorf,
Sugar Minott,
Buzzcocks,
Bauhaus,
The Remains,
Faraquet,
Erykah Badu,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
the Soft Cell,
John Coltrane,
The New Christs,
Nirvana,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
CMW,
Bill Wells,
The Count Five,
Dawn Penn,
K-Klass,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Aswad,
Unwound,
David McCallum,
John Cale,
Ice-T,
Cybotron,
the Normal,
Saccharine Trust,
the Swans,
The Music Machine,
Goldenarms,
The Seeds,
the Bar-Kays,
Sexual Harrassment,
Second Layer,
Ohio Players,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Blake Baxter,
Radiopuhelimet,
Loose Ends,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Anakelly,
Ludus,
Pagans,
Hasil Adkins,
Porter Ricks,
The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers, The Slackers.
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.