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 Brazil and from Woodstock.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Lyon.
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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the theremin 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 Max Romeo to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fifty Foot Hose. All the underground hits.
All Loose Ends tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barclay James Harvest record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 theremin and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Happenings record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
JFA,
Robert Wyatt,
Flash Fearless,
The Star Department,
Aloha Tigers,
F. McDonald,
The Blues Magoos,
Newcleus,
The Evens,
Tomorrow,
Suburban Knight,
Essential Logic,
Nick Fraelich,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Spoonie Gee,
Arcadia,
The Raincoats,
Oblivians,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Bob Dylan,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Lebanon Hanover,
Minny Pops,
Von Mondo,
Lyres,
The Litter,
The Fugs,
Gang Green,
Hot Snakes,
The Doors,
Livin' Joy,
Warren Ellis,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Althea and Donna,
Anakelly,
Grandmaster Flash,
Deadbeat,
L. Decosne,
Amazonics,
The Cramps,
Bang On A Can,
The Invisible,
These Immortal Souls,
The Young Rascals,
Black Moon,
Laurel Aitken,
The Kinks,
Suicide,
Robert Görl,
Gil Scott Heron,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Ponytail,
Fluxion,
Leonard Cohen,
Sonny Sharrock,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Black Dice,
Urselle,
Sparks,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Remains,
Spandau Ballet, Spandau Ballet, Spandau Ballet, Spandau Ballet.
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.