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 Mauritania and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Kaleidoscope to the funk 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 Smoke. All the underground hits.
All Fort Wilson Riot 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 rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Can record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Arthur Verocai,
Ultimate Spinach,
Can,
Erasure,
Sun City Girls,
The Doobie Brothers,
Ronan,
Television,
Swans,
Porter Ricks,
Agent Orange,
Eric Copeland,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Count Five,
Bob Dylan,
Marshall Jefferson,
Girls At Our Best!,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Easy Going,
The Sound,
Pagans,
The Raincoats,
Ice-T,
Grauzone,
Black Flag,
Suburban Knight,
Big Daddy Kane,
Fat Boys,
The Kinks,
Rosa Yemen,
In Retrospect,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Basic Channel,
Jimmy McGriff,
Animal Collective,
Joe Finger,
The Mummies,
Lindisfarne,
Das Ding,
Juan Atkins,
Half Japanese,
Crispian St. Peters,
Traffic Nightmare,
Cheater Slicks,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Howard Jones,
T. Rex,
Peter & Gordon,
Connie Case,
Faraquet,
Pulsallama,
Derrick May,
Marc Almond,
Scratch Acid,
Little Man,
The Residents,
Nas,
Matthew Halsall,
Nation of Ulysses,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Jacob Miller,
Electric Prunes,
Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor.
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.