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 Togo and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 808 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 The Invisible to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Oppenheimer Analysis. All the underground hits.
All Ultravox tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mad Mike record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sly & The Family Stone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Starr,
The Misunderstood,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Blancmange,
The Happenings,
Faraquet,
Man Eating Sloth,
Guru Guru,
Freddie Wadling,
Delta 5,
Curtis Mayfield,
Brass Construction,
The Wake,
The Residents,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Excepter,
Ronnie Foster,
Black Flag,
Circle Jerks,
Fad Gadget,
Todd Rundgren,
Brick,
Severed Heads,
Aloha Tigers,
Fat Boys,
Black Sheep,
Amon Düül,
The Move,
Jimmy McGriff,
Electric Prunes,
MDC,
Scan 7,
Wasted Youth,
The Detroit Cobras,
Babytalk,
Connie Case,
Spandau Ballet,
Yazoo,
Prince Buster,
Section 25,
Rufus Thomas,
The Pretty Things,
Massinfluence,
ABBA,
X-101,
Boz Scaggs,
The Angels of Light,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Searchers,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Victims,
Hardrive,
The Durutti Column,
Andrew Hill,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
kango's stein massive,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Bobby Hutcherson,
AZ,
Robert Wyatt,
The Motions,
Letta Mbulu,
Harry Pussy,
Hashim, Hashim, Hashim, Hashim.
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.