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 Haiti and from Cairo.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 spring reverb 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 The Zeros to the dance 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 Andrew Hill. All the underground hits.
All Agitation Free tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Prince Buster 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Intrusion record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Beasts of Bourbon,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Stooges,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Joy Division,
Echospace,
Skarface,
Subhumans,
The J.B.'s,
Hashim,
Depeche Mode,
Visage,
Bill Wells,
Joe Smooth,
Bob Dylan,
Electric Prunes,
Youth Brigade,
Reuben Wilson,
A Certain Ratio,
The Trojans,
Absolute Body Control,
Goldenarms,
Andrew Hill,
Supertramp,
David McCallum,
Theoretical Girls,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Malaria!,
Loose Ends,
Donny Hathaway,
Erykah Badu,
Stiv Bators,
Underground Resistance,
Pole,
The Toasters,
X-102,
Sarah Menescal,
Dave Gahan,
Procol Harum,
Patti Smith,
Brick,
Kenny Larkin,
Bad Manners,
MC5,
The Victims,
The Electric Prunes,
Hoover,
a-ha,
cv313,
Derrick May,
Altered Images,
Godley & Creme,
B.T. Express,
Robert Görl,
Robert Wyatt,
The Selecter,
The Fugs,
Lakeside,
Scientists,
CMW,
the Normal,
Magazine,
The Human League,
Livin' Joy,
Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope, Kaleidoscope.
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.