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 Vietnam and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Nas to the jazz 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 Jerry Gold Smith. All the underground hits.
All Excepter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Remains 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobbi Humphrey record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Brand Nubian,
Howard Jones,
Hoover,
Adolescents,
Dark Day,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
John Lydon,
Pere Ubu,
Pussy Galore,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
MC5,
Minny Pops,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Fire Engines,
the Bar-Kays,
The Smoke,
The Searchers,
Derrick May,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Hardrive,
Massinfluence,
Hashim,
Index,
The United States of America,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sonny Sharrock,
Erykah Badu,
Fela Kuti,
MDC,
This Heat,
K-Klass,
the Sonics,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Victims,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Pulsallama,
Nation of Ulysses,
Don Cherry,
The Kinks,
Vladislav Delay,
Boredoms,
Soulsonic Force,
Guru Guru,
The Vogues,
A Certain Ratio,
Toni Rubio,
Camberwell Now,
The Skatalites,
The Birthday Party,
Jimmy McGriff,
Gong,
Ultra Naté,
Joe Finger,
Severed Heads,
Whodini,
One Last Wish,
Mandrill,
Altered Images,
Amon Düül, Amon Düül, Amon Düül, Amon Düül.
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.