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 Swaziland and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Babytalk to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Bad Manners tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sarah Menescal record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 synthesizer and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a OOIOO record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Frankie Knuckles,
The Music Machine,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Theoretical Girls,
the Slits,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Unwound,
CMW,
Boz Scaggs,
Surgeon,
Altered Images,
The Trojans,
Arcadia,
Motorama,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Brothers Johnson,
Eve St. Jones,
Schoolly D,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Sun Ra,
The Sonics,
Saccharine Trust,
The Young Rascals,
Young Marble Giants,
Deadbeat,
PIL,
The Last Poets,
Shoche,
Bobby Sherman,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Bootsy Collins,
Visage,
Mark Hollis,
Max Romeo,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Public Enemy,
Gil Scott Heron,
Brand Nubian,
Michelle Simonal,
Dennis Brown,
the Association,
Jeff Mills,
David McCallum,
Agent Orange,
Sound Behaviour,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Angels of Light,
Nirvana,
Masters at Work,
Faraquet,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Talk Talk,
Johnny Clarke,
Nils Olav,
Tears for Fears,
Nik Kershaw,
The Moleskins,
Kevin Saunderson,
Silicon Teens,
MDC, MDC, MDC, MDC.
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.