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 Seychelles and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Kas Product to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Dave Clark Five. All the underground hits.
All David McCallum tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Durutti Column 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Spandau Ballet record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zero Boys,
Wolf Eyes,
Roxette,
Ultimate Spinach,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Siglo XX,
Bill Near,
Prince Buster,
Motorama,
John Holt,
John Coltrane,
Fad Gadget,
Chrome,
Yaz,
The Toasters,
Flash Fearless,
Man Parrish,
Ludus,
Excepter,
The Misunderstood,
Ituana,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Leaves,
Joe Smooth,
Rapeman,
Jeru the Damaja,
The J.B.'s,
Spandau Ballet,
Jacques Brel,
Groovy Waters,
Schoolly D,
The Monks,
Lou Reed,
Roxy Music,
Pantytec,
Matthew Bourne,
Ohio Players,
Drive Like Jehu,
Absolute Body Control,
The Raincoats,
Kurtis Blow,
The Shadows of Knight,
OOIOO,
Suburban Knight,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Youth Brigade,
Royal Trux,
Television,
Crime,
Harmonia,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Robert Görl,
the Sonics,
Jawbox,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Sonic Youth,
Terry Callier,
the Soft Cell,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Susan Cadogan,
Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside.
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.