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 Yemen and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Fugs to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish. All the underground hits.
All Kings Of Tomorrow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang On A Can 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Youth Brigade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Quadrant,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Sällskapet,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Index,
Fluxion,
Letta Mbulu,
Scientists,
Freddie Wadling,
Buzzcocks,
Organ,
Dave Gahan,
X-101,
The Detroit Cobras,
Suburban Knight,
Kurtis Blow,
Gastr Del Sol,
Black Bananas,
One Last Wish,
Neil Young,
Neu!,
Subhumans,
Barrington Levy,
Althea and Donna,
Piero Umiliani,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Bobby Byrd,
Model 500,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Howard Jones,
Glenn Branca,
Max Romeo,
The Human League,
The Music Machine,
Reagan Youth,
Joyce Sims,
Tom Boy,
the Normal,
Throbbing Gristle,
Warsaw,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Cecil Taylor,
Spandau Ballet,
The Monks,
Junior Murvin,
Jerry's Kids,
Smog,
Swell Maps,
London Community Gospel Choir,
MC5,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Fatback Band,
Barclay James Harvest,
Stockholm Monsters,
Con Funk Shun,
Khruangbin,
Little Man,
Rufus Thomas,
Arthur Verocai,
8 Eyed Spy, 8 Eyed Spy, 8 Eyed Spy, 8 Eyed Spy.
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.