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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Tehran.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Magma to the jazz kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson. All the underground hits.
All Minny Pops tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yellowson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cal Tjader record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeff Mills,
Moebius,
Agitation Free,
Joy Division,
Bob Dylan,
Ludus,
Sight & Sound,
The Sonics,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Dead Boys,
Outsiders,
The Last Poets,
Monolake,
Soulsonic Force,
Lebanon Hanover,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Saints,
The Walker Brothers,
Public Enemy,
the Swans,
The Fall,
Sam Rivers,
Ornette Coleman,
Marshall Jefferson,
Big Daddy Kane,
Chris & Cosey,
Arthur Verocai,
Television Personalities,
a-ha,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Jerry Gold Smith,
AZ,
DJ Style,
Stereo Dub,
Josef K,
The Kinks,
Cheater Slicks,
Mars,
The Names,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
H. Thieme,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Happenings,
Boogie Down Productions,
Frankie Knuckles,
Babytalk,
Gong,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The American Breed,
Pantytec,
Sex Pistols,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Danielle Patucci,
Kurtis Blow,
Patti Smith,
The Toasters,
Scott Walker,
Sugar Minott,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
This Heat,
Make Up, Make Up, Make Up, Make Up.
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.