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 Bhutan and from Sao Paulo.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 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 Black Bananas to the funk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Cabaret Voltaire. All the underground hits.
All The Gun Club tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Public Image Ltd. 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Five Americans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Moon,
Gregory Isaacs,
10cc,
Neu!,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Livin' Joy,
Godley & Creme,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Youth Brigade,
Eric B and Rakim,
8 Eyed Spy,
In Retrospect,
Monks,
Fatback Band,
Second Layer,
Bush Tetras,
Suburban Knight,
Cheater Slicks,
the Slits,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Warsaw,
Fat Boys,
John Coltrane,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Mad Mike,
Au Pairs,
Crispian St. Peters,
Man Eating Sloth,
China Crisis,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Hoover,
Rapeman,
James White and The Blacks,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Panda Bear,
Mark Hollis,
Soft Machine,
Whodini,
The Offenders,
The Neon Judgement,
Slave,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Neil Young,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Blackbyrds,
Soft Cell,
Roxy Music,
Ten City,
Joensuu 1685,
Spandau Ballet,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Tropical Tobacco,
Nik Kershaw,
Model 500,
Minutemen,
Roger Hodgson,
Maleditus Sound,
Wolf Eyes,
The Gories,
Malaria!,
Public Enemy,
Morten Harket,
EPMD, EPMD, EPMD, EPMD.
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.