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 Guinea-Bissau and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the snare 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 Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Bad Manners. All the underground hits.
All The Grass Roots tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every E-Dancer record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alice Coltrane record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
10cc,
Marshall Jefferson,
Faraquet,
X-Ray Spex,
John Coltrane,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Count Five,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Don Cherry,
Eric Dolphy,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Bad Manners,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Slave,
Sparks,
Grandmaster Flash,
Al Stewart,
Barbara Tucker,
the Slits,
The Trojans,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
EPMD,
Drexciya,
Joe Finger,
Angry Samoans,
Inner City,
Matthew Halsall,
Fad Gadget,
Motorama,
Michelle Simonal,
Spoonie Gee,
Procol Harum,
Alice Coltrane,
Half Japanese,
Guru Guru,
Crooked Eye,
The Beau Brummels,
La Düsseldorf,
Deakin,
Thompson Twins,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Stockholm Monsters,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Bush Tetras,
Aural Exciters,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Camouflage,
Black Sheep,
Cecil Taylor,
Lalann,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Blackbyrds,
The Music Machine,
Bizarre Inc.,
Mandrill,
Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia.
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.