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 Senegal and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Kings Of Tomorrow to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Janne Schatter. All the underground hits.
All Absolute Body Control tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jesper Dahlbäck record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nick Fraelich record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Matthew Bourne,
F. McDonald,
The Leaves,
The Evens,
Scan 7,
Bob Dylan,
Eve St. Jones,
Bad Manners,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Nas,
Kaleidoscope,
Das Ding,
The Mojo Men,
Main Source,
Quadrant,
L. Decosne,
Judy Mowatt,
Half Japanese,
KRS-One,
The Pop Group,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Eden Ahbez,
Gang Green,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Eddi Front,
Skarface,
Nick Fraelich,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Schoolly D,
ABC,
Black Flag,
Bizarre Inc.,
Fad Gadget,
Jacob Miller,
Talk Talk,
Negative Approach,
Marshall Jefferson,
Curtis Mayfield,
Sugar Minott,
Sun City Girls,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Last Poets,
The Raincoats,
The Knickerbockers,
Lalann,
Drexciya,
Susan Cadogan,
Soft Machine,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Doobie Brothers,
Joy Division,
The Wake,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Marmalade,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Technova,
Roy Ayers,
The Monks,
Blake Baxter,
Adolescents,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic.
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.