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 San Marino and from Madrid.
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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Bologna.
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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Ash Ra Tempel to the jazz 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Joensuu 1685 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joy Division 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barry Ungar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marcia Griffiths,
Nation of Ulysses,
Underground Resistance,
Jeff Mills,
The Victims,
Lucky Dragons,
The Last Poets,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Technova,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Knickerbockers,
Bill Wells,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Warren Ellis,
Black Moon,
Audionom,
Ohio Players,
Hoover,
The Remains,
The Searchers,
Erykah Badu,
The Count Five,
The Angels of Light,
The Cramps,
Black Flag,
Sonic Youth,
Parry Music,
Saccharine Trust,
The Doobie Brothers,
Gang Gang Dance,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
F. McDonald,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Royal Trux,
Jeru the Damaja,
Eden Ahbez,
The Barracudas,
The Human League,
Junior Murvin,
Lee Hazlewood,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Cybotron,
The Offenders,
Funky Four + One,
Pere Ubu,
Ossler,
Altered Images,
The Slits,
Liliput,
The Martian,
a-ha,
The Standells,
Das Ding,
The Kinks,
Electric Prunes,
Marshall Jefferson,
Icehouse,
The Smiths,
Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith.
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.