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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Toronto.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 ABC to the rap kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. All the underground hits.
All Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang of Four record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warren Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Guru Guru,
Vladislav Delay,
Pole,
Young Marble Giants,
Scion,
Neil Young,
The Vogues,
Nik Kershaw,
Altered Images,
Das Ding,
The Fuzztones,
Robert Wyatt,
The Seeds,
The Skatalites,
The Leaves,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Swell Maps,
Johnny Osbourne,
Iggy Pop,
Lalann,
Grey Daturas,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Selecter,
Kas Product,
Sexual Harrassment,
Al Stewart,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sun City Girls,
Dual Sessions,
Rekid,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Joe Smooth,
Nico,
Andrew Hill,
Kaleidoscope,
Jerry's Kids,
Country Teasers,
The Flesh Eaters,
Talk Talk,
Drexciya,
The Fall,
Mary Jane Girls,
Boz Scaggs,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Mars,
Boogie Down Productions,
Man Parrish,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Fatback Band,
H. Thieme,
Simply Red,
Minor Threat,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Aaron Thompson,
Sam Rivers,
Soft Machine,
Alton Ellis,
Amon Düül,
The Monochrome Set,
Quadrant,
The New Christs, The New Christs, The New Christs, The New Christs.
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.