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 Angola and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 New Age Steppers to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Janne Schatter. All the underground hits.
All The Tremeloes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every London Community Gospel Choir 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a D'Angelo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Guru Guru,
Theoretical Girls,
The Five Americans,
Gabor Szabo,
Don Cherry,
Yellowson,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Bobby Byrd,
Cameo,
Erasure,
Rekid,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Black Pus,
Blake Baxter,
Gregory Isaacs,
DJ Sneak,
Deadbeat,
The Music Machine,
Henry Cow,
Magazine,
the Slits,
Television,
Blancmange,
Minor Threat,
Hardrive,
The Barracudas,
Crispian St. Peters,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Jimmy McGriff,
Jerry's Kids,
Jeff Mills,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Sound Behaviour,
Archie Shepp,
John Holt,
John Coltrane,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Skatalites,
The New Christs,
This Heat,
X-Ray Spex,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Matthew Bourne,
Peter and Kerry,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Trojans,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Roy Ayers,
Prince Buster,
Funky Four + One,
Liliput,
Chrome,
T.S.O.L.,
AZ,
Country Teasers,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Davy DMX,
The Litter,
The Searchers,
Smog, Smog, Smog, Smog.
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.