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 Ireland and from Philadelphia.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Eric Copeland to the crunk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Kerri Chandler. All the underground hits.
All Aswad tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Seeds record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cal Tjader record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Human League,
Roxette,
The Alarm Clocks,
Eden Ahbez,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Lightning Bolt,
Fad Gadget,
The Searchers,
John Cale,
Drexciya,
Albert Ayler,
Panda Bear,
Surgeon,
Second Layer,
Idris Muhammad,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Wasted Youth,
Eddi Front,
Subhumans,
Lindisfarne,
Brick,
Von Mondo,
Funkadelic,
Deakin,
Don Cherry,
Ornette Coleman,
Lou Christie,
Zapp,
Jacob Miller,
Grey Daturas,
The Residents,
Outsiders,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Neon Judgement,
Youth Brigade,
Warren Ellis,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Barracudas,
Icehouse,
Sex Pistols,
Lucky Dragons,
David Bowie,
Scratch Acid,
David McCallum,
PIL,
Quantec,
cv313,
Neu!,
Sun Ra,
Q65,
Rufus Thomas,
Cabaret Voltaire,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tropical Tobacco,
Camouflage,
Wire,
Loose Ends,
Porter Ricks,
Agitation Free,
Monks,
T.S.O.L.,
Ludus, Ludus, Ludus, Ludus.
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.