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 Sierra Leone and from Sao Paulo.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 harpsichord 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 DJ Style to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Brass Construction. All the underground hits.
All Spandau Ballet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Beau Brummels record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rufus Thomas record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lindisfarne,
Bronski Beat,
8 Eyed Spy,
Tears for Fears,
Mantronix,
The Walker Brothers,
Suburban Knight,
Rekid,
The Standells,
Model 500,
Pagans,
Main Source,
Gichy Dan,
Patti Smith,
Colin Newman,
John Lydon,
Erykah Badu,
The Divine Comedy,
Q65,
Liliput,
Nico,
La Düsseldorf,
Joyce Sims,
This Heat,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Theoretical Girls,
Rakim,
Organ,
Supertramp,
The Music Machine,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Das Ding,
A Certain Ratio,
Delta 5,
Brand Nubian,
Barrington Levy,
Danielle Patucci,
The Sound,
The Count Five,
Jacques Brel,
Heaven 17,
The Electric Prunes,
The Offenders,
Eli Mardock,
Prince Buster,
China Crisis,
Silicon Teens,
Michelle Simonal,
Scion,
Blancmange,
Pylon,
Bang On A Can,
Flash Fearless,
PIL,
Mission of Burma,
D'Angelo,
Scientists,
Scrapy,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The American Breed,
The Slits, The Slits, The Slits, The Slits.
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.