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 Burundi and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Toronto.
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 rhodes 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 Arcadia 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 Stiv Bators. All the underground hits.
All X-Ray Spex tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Blackbyrds record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 harpsichord and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echospace record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barclay James Harvest,
Joy Division,
a-ha,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Average White Band,
Harmonia,
Skriet,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Move,
Fatback Band,
Circle Jerks,
Derrick May,
Scratch Acid,
Drive Like Jehu,
Graham Central Station,
Magazine,
Lee Hazlewood,
Sex Pistols,
Robert Wyatt,
Yusef Lateef,
Frankie Knuckles,
Mars,
Fugazi,
Mr. Review,
X-101,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Soulsonic Force,
The Cure,
Y Pants,
Pagans,
Judy Mowatt,
Glenn Branca,
Bill Wells,
Girls At Our Best!,
Wolf Eyes,
Gichy Dan,
Pulsallama,
Sun City Girls,
Gong,
Surgeon,
Desert Stars,
Colin Newman,
Bobby Hutcherson,
La Düsseldorf,
Josef K,
The Red Krayola,
Subhumans,
Marshall Jefferson,
Ice-T,
Charles Mingus,
Arcadia,
Crash Course in Science,
A Flock of Seagulls,
John Lydon,
Sister Nancy,
Sun Ra,
Funky Four + One,
Althea and Donna,
The Stooges,
Excepter, Excepter, Excepter, Excepter.
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.