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 San Marino and from Copenhagen.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the organ 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 Buzzcocks to the crunk 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 The Residents. All the underground hits.
All Quando Quango tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultimate Spinach record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eric B and Rakim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Tremeloes,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
cv313,
Roger Hodgson,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Pet Shop Boys,
Jimmy McGriff,
Gil Scott Heron,
Joy Division,
Goldenarms,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Cameo,
Nils Olav,
Altered Images,
The Angels of Light,
Animal Collective,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Prince Buster,
Pulsallama,
The Five Americans,
Mark Hollis,
Young Marble Giants,
Second Layer,
The American Breed,
The Stooges,
John Coltrane,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Ultravox,
Soft Machine,
Crispian St. Peters,
the Human League,
Wolf Eyes,
10cc,
Erasure,
Unwound,
In Retrospect,
Sound Behaviour,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Scan 7,
Skriet,
Jeff Mills,
The Modern Lovers,
Gang of Four,
Camberwell Now,
Von Mondo,
Harmonia,
The Smoke,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Lungfish,
Alphaville,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Popol Vuh,
Jandek,
Basic Channel,
The Busters,
Alton Ellis,
Ken Boothe,
Trumans Water,
the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays.
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.