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 Algeria and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 chamberlin 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 The Slits to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Derrick Morgan. All the underground hits.
All Kerri Chandler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flash Fearless record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 808 and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Black Dice 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?
Erykah Badu,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Eric Copeland,
Joy Division,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
10cc,
Hoover,
Pierre Henry,
Rufus Thomas,
The Associates,
Model 500,
Brick,
Lebanon Hanover,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Terrestrial Tones,
Skaos,
Bad Manners,
Kurtis Blow,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Loose Ends,
Negative Approach,
the Sonics,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Al Stewart,
Terry Callier,
Severed Heads,
The Gladiators,
Ludus,
Crispian St. Peters,
Rosa Yemen,
Aswad,
48th St. Collective,
ABC,
The Knickerbockers,
Newcleus,
The Mummies,
Boz Scaggs,
MDC,
Bush Tetras,
Wally Richardson,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Flesh Eaters,
This Heat,
Tomorrow,
Agitation Free,
Unwound,
Sonny Sharrock,
James White and The Blacks,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
New Age Steppers,
Roy Ayers,
the Normal,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Frankie Knuckles,
Second Layer,
T.S.O.L.,
Eli Mardock,
Technova,
Avey Tare,
Silicon Teens,
Fatback Band,
John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane.
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.