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 Kosovo and from Columbus.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the güiro 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 Country Joe & The Fish to the dance 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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson. All the underground hits.
All Judy Mowatt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blake Baxter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Slave record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zero Boys,
Cluster,
Drive Like Jehu,
Cal Tjader,
The Pretty Things,
JFA,
The Monochrome Set,
Nation of Ulysses,
Radiohead,
Marine Girls,
Alice Coltrane,
The Offenders,
The Blackbyrds,
Warsaw,
Neu!,
Terry Callier,
Black Moon,
DJ Style,
the Germs,
Jacques Brel,
Lower 48,
the Sonics,
Barrington Levy,
The Gories,
Althea and Donna,
Angry Samoans,
The Evens,
Popol Vuh,
Fugazi,
Eric Dolphy,
H. Thieme,
Infiniti,
Model 500,
Gang of Four,
Scott Walker,
Eric Copeland,
Johnny Osbourne,
Tears for Fears,
Niagra,
Connie Case,
Excepter,
Parry Music,
Sunsets and Hearts,
the Human League,
Peter and Kerry,
Aaron Thompson,
Idris Muhammad,
Marcia Griffiths,
Duran Duran,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Marshall Jefferson,
Adolescents,
Lee Hazlewood,
This Heat,
Von Mondo,
Grey Daturas,
Beasts of Bourbon,
48th St. Collective,
Soft Cell,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
B.T. Express,
Prince Buster,
The American Breed,
Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke.
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.