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 Kiribati and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 The Moody Blues to the grunge 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 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. All the underground hits.
All Bang On A Can tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every kango's stein massive record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a 48th St. Collective record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dorothy Ashby,
Amazonics,
Lakeside,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Gories,
Aswad,
The Golliwogs,
The Move,
The Techniques,
Deakin,
John Lydon,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Tomorrow,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Porter Ricks,
Big Daddy Kane,
Morten Harket,
Ice-T,
Japan,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Raincoats,
Tim Buckley,
Frankie Knuckles,
Derrick May,
The Durutti Column,
Gong,
Crispian St. Peters,
Los Fastidios,
The Saints,
the Slits,
The Walker Brothers,
The Toasters,
The Cure,
The Monochrome Set,
Agent Orange,
Robert Wyatt,
Delon & Dalcan,
Piero Umiliani,
The Grass Roots,
Schoolly D,
The Slits,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Danielle Patucci,
Idris Muhammad,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
June Days,
Tommy Roe,
JFA,
Altered Images,
Peter and Kerry,
Minny Pops,
Pussy Galore,
Lee Hazlewood,
Fluxion,
Judy Mowatt,
John Coltrane,
Talk Talk,
Half Japanese,
Surgeon,
Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd, Bobby Byrd.
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.