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 Panama and from Lille.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 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 LL Cool J to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Kings Of Tomorrow. All the underground hits.
All Visage tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Alice Coltrane 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Main Source record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Remains,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
H. Thieme,
The Fall,
Basic Channel,
Gastr Del Sol,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
David McCallum,
Kaleidoscope,
The Young Rascals,
Bronski Beat,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Barrington Levy,
Second Layer,
PIL,
Terry Callier,
Black Bananas,
R.M.O.,
Maleditus Sound,
The Stooges,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Blake Baxter,
Funky Four + One,
Susan Cadogan,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Half Japanese,
Albert Ayler,
The Fortunes,
The Star Department,
Kurtis Blow,
X-101,
AZ,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Smoke,
Al Stewart,
The Vogues,
Scion,
Freddie Wadling,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Babytalk,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Black Sheep,
The Mummies,
Adolescents,
Joyce Sims,
Jesper Dahlback,
Soft Cell,
Jeff Lynne,
The Techniques,
Masters at Work,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Joey Negro,
Pylon,
Cameo,
Peter & Gordon,
The Alarm Clocks,
the Normal,
Gong,
Brothers Johnson,
Yaz, Yaz, Yaz, Yaz.
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.