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 Montenegro and from Woodstock.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Cabaret Voltaire to the rap 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 Chrome. All the underground hits.
All the Bar-Kays tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Dave Clark Five record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 808 and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Letta Mbulu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Big Daddy Kane,
Das Ding,
Television,
The Five Americans,
Chrome,
The Litter,
Alice Coltrane,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Spoonie Gee,
The Monks,
Terry Callier,
Easy Going,
Marshall Jefferson,
Sight & Sound,
Pierre Henry,
Slave,
Reuben Wilson,
The Human League,
FM Einheit,
Radio Birdman,
Cymande,
Brick,
The Skatalites,
The Wake,
Juan Atkins,
Porter Ricks,
Fear,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Ponytail,
The Cowsills,
A Certain Ratio,
Minny Pops,
John Foxx,
Andrew Hill,
Essential Logic,
Qualms,
Throbbing Gristle,
Los Fastidios,
DNA,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Zero Boys,
Malaria!,
Rosa Yemen,
Carl Craig,
L. Decosne,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Althea and Donna,
Bad Manners,
Royal Trux,
Public Enemy,
Tomorrow,
Gabor Szabo,
Aaron Thompson,
Average White Band,
Audionom,
Grauzone,
Harry Pussy,
Zapp,
Fluxion,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Cure,
The Zeros, The Zeros, The Zeros, The Zeros.
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.