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 Dominica and from Milan.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Lagos.
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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth to the jazz 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 Aloha Tigers. All the underground hits.
All It's A Beautiful Day tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Das Ding record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 sitar and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James White and The Blacks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fela Kuti,
Kerri Chandler,
Ultimate Spinach,
Underground Resistance,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Pussy Galore,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Smoke,
Dead Boys,
Minny Pops,
The Zeros,
Iggy Pop,
Rufus Thomas,
The Victims,
Blake Baxter,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Sonics,
Sällskapet,
Brick,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Sight & Sound,
Sam Rivers,
Boredoms,
Byron Stingily,
Man Parrish,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Busters,
Average White Band,
The Dave Clark Five,
Sugar Minott,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Sun City Girls,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Rites of Spring,
Camouflage,
Bush Tetras,
Curtis Mayfield,
Cecil Taylor,
Au Pairs,
Bobby Byrd,
Dorothy Ashby,
Wally Richardson,
Y Pants,
The Stooges,
Yusef Lateef,
F. McDonald,
Moebius,
Panda Bear,
Japan,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
K-Klass,
Vainqueur,
John Coltrane,
The Count Five,
Andrew Hill,
UT,
The Skatalites,
Frankie Knuckles,
Main Source,
Surgeon,
Boogie Down Productions,
Monolake, Monolake, Monolake, Monolake.
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.