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 Uganda and from Lille.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 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 Slackers to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 LL Cool J. All the underground hits.
All Pagans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Judy Mowatt 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soft Machine record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grey Daturas,
Popol Vuh,
Aaron Thompson,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Swans,
Skaos,
Blake Baxter,
Brick,
Unrelated Segments,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Buckinghams,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Litter,
Laurel Aitken,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Sound,
Roxette,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Brand Nubian,
Gregory Isaacs,
Dawn Penn,
Cameo,
Los Fastidios,
Stetsasonic,
Lee Hazlewood,
Stiv Bators,
Surgeon,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Clear Light,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Zero Boys,
Kurtis Blow,
the Swans,
Jerry's Kids,
The Monks,
Peter & Gordon,
DJ Style,
One Last Wish,
X-Ray Spex,
PIL,
China Crisis,
David Bowie,
Essential Logic,
Half Japanese,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Sarah Menescal,
Q65,
Fatback Band,
La Düsseldorf,
The Saints,
John Holt,
Freddie Wadling,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Hashim,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Doors,
Magma,
David Axelrod,
Alice Coltrane,
Goldenarms, Goldenarms, Goldenarms, Goldenarms.
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.