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 Ireland and from Jakarta.
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 Hong Kong and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Dead C to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Roy Ayers. All the underground hits.
All PIL tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Red Krayola 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a UT record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nils Olav,
Camouflage,
Shuggie Otis,
The Standells,
Chris Corsano,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Divine Comedy,
The Blues Magoos,
John Holt,
Rapeman,
Kas Product,
Trumans Water,
Derrick May,
Swans,
Kaleidoscope,
David McCallum,
The Kinks,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Unrelated Segments,
Ronnie Foster,
Mary Jane Girls,
Sex Pistols,
The Cramps,
MDC,
Toni Rubio,
Moby Grape,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Raincoats,
Joy Division,
Simply Red,
Echospace,
The Music Machine,
Severed Heads,
Jimmy McGriff,
Stetsasonic,
The Fall,
Buzzcocks,
Althea and Donna,
The Saints,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Angels of Light,
John Lydon,
Crime,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Frankie Knuckles,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Victims,
Black Bananas,
Reagan Youth,
MC5,
Zapp,
The Barracudas,
Arab on Radar,
Tres Demented,
Malaria!,
Pharoah Sanders,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Techniques,
Marcia Griffiths,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler, Albert Ayler.
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.