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 Malawi and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 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 Popol Vuh to the grunge 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 Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo. All the underground hits.
All Eli Mardock tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-Ray Spex record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 chamberlin and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lou Reed record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Coltrane,
Brick,
The Doors,
Yaz,
Joe Finger,
Roger Hodgson,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Rotary Connection,
The Neon Judgement,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Kas Product,
Metal Thangz,
Man Eating Sloth,
Jeff Lynne,
Whodini,
Robert Wyatt,
Wire,
Glambeats Corp.,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Cybotron,
Lakeside,
H. Thieme,
CMW,
Isaac Hayes,
Steve Hackett,
Morten Harket,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Magazine,
Public Image Ltd.,
the Soft Cell,
Infiniti,
The Slackers,
Don Cherry,
JFA,
Monks,
Accadde A,
the Bar-Kays,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Toni Rubio,
Jesper Dahlback,
Ronnie Foster,
Erykah Badu,
Moebius,
The Flesh Eaters,
Hardrive,
Stiv Bators,
Crooked Eye,
the Human League,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Niagra,
Tom Boy,
Vainqueur,
Alton Ellis,
The Toasters,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Trojans,
Liliput,
The Zeros,
Bluetip,
Basic Channel, Basic Channel, Basic Channel, Basic Channel.
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.