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 Seychelles and from Portland.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 güiro 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 Alphaville to the disco 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 The Peanut Butter Conspiracy. All the underground hits.
All Cal Tjader tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quadrant 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 sitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Golliwogs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Visage,
Pet Shop Boys,
Josef K,
Lower 48,
The Blackbyrds,
Charles Mingus,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Donald Byrd,
Skaos,
Aural Exciters,
The Monochrome Set,
La Düsseldorf,
Scrapy,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Roxette,
Black Flag,
Funkadelic,
Moss Icon,
L. Decosne,
Smog,
Mantronix,
Aloha Tigers,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Busters,
LL Cool J,
Nirvana,
CMW,
The Cowsills,
OOIOO,
Lyres,
Theoretical Girls,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Sound,
A Certain Ratio,
Gastr Del Sol,
The New Christs,
Crispian St. Peters,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Joe Finger,
Joey Negro,
Black Bananas,
Nik Kershaw,
Heaven 17,
The Fortunes,
Cheater Slicks,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Hardrive,
Archie Shepp,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Bronski Beat,
Davy DMX,
Marcia Griffiths,
Shuggie Otis,
Crispy Ambulance,
Average White Band,
Oblivians,
Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich.
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.