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 Burkina 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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Simply Red to the crunk 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 Sound Behaviour. All the underground hits.
All Lonnie Liston Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Delon & Dalcan 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grauzone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Spandau Ballet,
Stetsasonic,
Index,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Heaven 17,
New Order,
Chris Corsano,
Rakim,
B.T. Express,
The Victims,
Sound Behaviour,
Boredoms,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Walker Brothers,
the Normal,
The Gun Club,
Swans,
Public Enemy,
Lakeside,
Bobby Byrd,
Deakin,
Minny Pops,
Jesper Dahlback,
Silicon Teens,
The Standells,
Bobby Sherman,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
UT,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sister Nancy,
Gil Scott Heron,
David Axelrod,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Quadrant,
Gichy Dan,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Wally Richardson,
The Motions,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Max Romeo,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Electric Prunes,
Pharoah Sanders,
Dark Day,
Carl Craig,
Gang Gang Dance,
Pere Ubu,
China Crisis,
Cymande,
Theoretical Girls,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Stooges,
Grauzone,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Wake,
James White and The Blacks,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
OOIOO,
Reuben Wilson,
Royal Trux,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Roy Ayers Ubiquity.
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.