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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Mexico City.
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 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 Johnny Osbourne to the jazz 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 Lalann. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra Arkestra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pharoah Sanders 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soul Sonic Force record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Goldenarms,
Kevin Saunderson,
Crooked Eye,
Terrestrial Tones,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Second Layer,
MDC,
Bush Tetras,
Eric Dolphy,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Soft Machine,
The Golliwogs,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Stetsasonic,
The Smiths,
Royal Trux,
The Toasters,
Fat Boys,
Moebius,
New Order,
The Dave Clark Five,
Man Eating Sloth,
Subhumans,
Jerry's Kids,
Organ,
Robert Görl,
Radiohead,
David Axelrod,
Todd Rundgren,
D'Angelo,
Slave,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Make Up,
Brothers Johnson,
Swell Maps,
Fela Kuti,
CMW,
Gang Green,
Au Pairs,
Pet Shop Boys,
Buzzcocks,
Black Bananas,
Unwound,
X-102,
Ultravox,
Reagan Youth,
Mars,
The Knickerbockers,
Schoolly D,
Vainqueur,
Godley & Creme,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Can,
Sister Nancy,
Suburban Knight,
the Human League,
Johnny Clarke,
Matthew Halsall,
The Real Kids,
Erasure, Erasure, Erasure, Erasure.
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.