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 Indonesia and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 808 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 Japan to the rock kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Yaz. All the underground hits.
All Todd Rundgren tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Fall 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 sitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobby Byrd record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Saints,
Cluster,
Rakim,
The Fugs,
Delta 5,
Visage,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Pussy Galore,
Alice Coltrane,
Byron Stingily,
The Doobie Brothers,
Sonic Youth,
Schoolly D,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Barrington Levy,
Magma,
Gang Starr,
Negative Approach,
Crime,
Slave,
R.M.O.,
Tommy Roe,
the Bar-Kays,
Yazoo,
Black Bananas,
X-101,
Joey Negro,
Kerri Chandler,
X-Ray Spex,
The Offenders,
Erykah Badu,
Lee Hazlewood,
Barbara Tucker,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Public Image Ltd.,
David Bowie,
Funkadelic,
Television,
Fear,
MC5,
Howard Jones,
Faraquet,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Deadbeat,
Bronski Beat,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Smog,
The Victims,
Vainqueur,
Bizarre Inc.,
Jesper Dahlback,
Radiohead,
The Fire Engines,
The Star Department,
Silicon Teens,
Barry Ungar,
Suburban Knight,
Infiniti,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Gang Gang Dance,
Whodini, Whodini, Whodini, Whodini.
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.