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 Oman and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Rosa Yemen to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Grauzone. All the underground hits.
All Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every New York Dolls record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eve St. Jones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cheater Slicks,
Tim Buckley,
Suicide,
Matthew Halsall,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Soft Machine,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Saints,
The Angels of Light,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Sight & Sound,
Desert Stars,
Ronan,
Radio Birdman,
Audionom,
The Pretty Things,
The Velvet Underground,
Japan,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Mary Jane Girls,
Faraquet,
Drive Like Jehu,
Sandy B,
The Buckinghams,
The Monochrome Set,
Eric Dolphy,
Harry Pussy,
The Move,
Half Japanese,
Hoover,
Gong,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Busters,
Y Pants,
Unrelated Segments,
Newcleus,
Leonard Cohen,
Sound Behaviour,
Section 25,
Q65,
Frankie Knuckles,
Ronnie Foster,
Guru Guru,
The Durutti Column,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Shadows of Knight,
Brand Nubian,
Trumans Water,
Duran Duran,
The Motions,
Zapp,
Flash Fearless,
Gichy Dan,
Rekid,
Crash Course in Science,
Amon Düül,
John Lydon,
Sun Ra,
Pagans,
Mantronix,
Quando Quango,
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.