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 Paraguay and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 synthesizer 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 Josef K to the crunk 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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All The Leaves tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Men They Couldn't Hang record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Colin Newman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Boz Scaggs,
Kerrie Biddell,
Throbbing Gristle,
Pagans,
AZ,
The Wake,
Young Marble Giants,
Blancmange,
Lucky Dragons,
Peter & Gordon,
Heaven 17,
Guru Guru,
Brass Construction,
Franke,
Roxy Music,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Amon Düül,
Dennis Brown,
The New Christs,
Lindisfarne,
Tomorrow,
Blossom Toes,
Curtis Mayfield,
Eddi Front,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Deakin,
Mars,
Black Bananas,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Kaleidoscope,
Goldenarms,
Quadrant,
Wings,
DJ Style,
Slick Rick,
The Fuzztones,
Sugar Minott,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Ken Boothe,
Crooked Eye,
Mad Mike,
The Velvet Underground,
Pharoah Sanders,
Duran Duran,
Dark Day,
The Star Department,
The Misunderstood,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Section 25,
Qualms,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Pulsallama,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Skarface,
Mo-Dettes, Mo-Dettes, Mo-Dettes, Mo-Dettes.
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.