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 Iraq and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in 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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 Donald Fagen 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 Cramps to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade. All the underground hits.
All Sunsets and Hearts tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Heavy D & The Boyz record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Tremeloes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Monolake,
Pagans,
Connie Case,
Robert Hood,
Joensuu 1685,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Intrusion,
Lakeside,
Little Man,
Skaos,
David Axelrod,
DNA,
Young Marble Giants,
Funky Four + One,
John Cale,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Skatalites,
Aaron Thompson,
Zero Boys,
Patti Smith,
Kurtis Blow,
Peter and Kerry,
Amon Düül II,
Juan Atkins,
Animal Collective,
Moebius,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Star Department,
Drive Like Jehu,
Shoche,
Eurythmics,
Ice-T,
Fear,
Marvin Gaye,
Slave,
Freddie Wadling,
the Bar-Kays,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Ken Boothe,
New Age Steppers,
Liliput,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Aloha Tigers,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Eric Copeland,
The Gladiators,
A Certain Ratio,
Johnny Osbourne,
Crispian St. Peters,
Whodini,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
KRS-One,
Bill Near,
Y Pants,
Rufus Thomas,
Rakim,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Magazine,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Andrew Hill,
Sun City Girls, Sun City Girls, Sun City Girls, Sun City Girls.
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.