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 Ethiopia and from Spokane.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra 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 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 Cure to the grunge 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 Depeche Mode. All the underground hits.
All Fatback Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joe Finger 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
MDC,
a-ha,
Tres Demented,
The Alarm Clocks,
China Crisis,
The Associates,
Rakim,
Lalann,
Technova,
Moebius,
Sexual Harrassment,
Archie Shepp,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Selecter,
A Certain Ratio,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Man Eating Sloth,
Mars,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Public Enemy,
Mark Hollis,
Robert Wyatt,
Robert Hood,
Rapeman,
Ossler,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Todd Terry,
New Age Steppers,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Gun Club,
Derrick Morgan,
Theoretical Girls,
Cal Tjader,
Gerry Rafferty,
Y Pants,
Bauhaus,
Carl Craig,
Agitation Free,
Fluxion,
Negative Approach,
Eric Copeland,
La Düsseldorf,
the Human League,
Kaleidoscope,
John Foxx,
Maurizio,
Kas Product,
Lalo Schifrin,
Lindisfarne,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Mo-Dettes,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Trojans,
Visage,
the Sonics,
Pussy Galore,
Goldenarms,
the Association,
The Pretty Things,
Cheater Slicks,
Dead Boys,
Porter Ricks,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.