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 Pakistan and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 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 Zero Boys to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Patti Smith. All the underground hits.
All Blossom Toes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cabaret Voltaire record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an arpeggiator and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Skatalites record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gichy Dan,
Charles Mingus,
Traffic Nightmare,
Joe Smooth,
Rosa Yemen,
Stereo Dub,
The J.B.'s,
Prince Buster,
The Motions,
Adolescents,
Cheater Slicks,
La Düsseldorf,
Drive Like Jehu,
Gang of Four,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Cramps,
Kevin Saunderson,
China Crisis,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Icehouse,
The Tremeloes,
Flipper,
Girls At Our Best!,
Lyres,
Terry Callier,
Gang Gang Dance,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Saints,
Funky Four + One,
The Skatalites,
Ornette Coleman,
Michelle Simonal,
Rakim,
Dark Day,
Joyce Sims,
The Knickerbockers,
Cameo,
Make Up,
Black Bananas,
The Zeros,
One Last Wish,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Harry Pussy,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Golliwogs,
Tim Buckley,
Au Pairs,
The Remains,
The Buckinghams,
The Dirtbombs,
The Gun Club,
Steve Hackett,
Jeff Lynne,
Nick Fraelich,
Jacques Brel,
The Mummies,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Kool Moe Dee,
Brothers Johnson,
Archie Shepp,
ABC,
David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie.
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.