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 Honduras 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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 sitar 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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to the electroclash 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 The Detroit Cobras. All the underground hits.
All The Fall tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Trojans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Art Ensemble Of Chicago record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joyce Sims,
Ornette Coleman,
Gang Green,
KRS-One,
Bronski Beat,
Pantaleimon,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Anthony Braxton,
Lou Reed,
Average White Band,
Eli Mardock,
Technova,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Visage,
Qualms,
Guru Guru,
Pierre Henry,
The Saints,
Buzzcocks,
Das Ding,
Jerry Gold Smith,
F. McDonald,
Gabor Szabo,
The Walker Brothers,
Scion,
Skriet,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Gap Band,
Yaz,
Magma,
Thompson Twins,
Cecil Taylor,
Masters at Work,
Patti Smith,
Robert Görl,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Sparks,
The Red Krayola,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
DJ Style,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Rufus Thomas,
The Black Dice,
Reuben Wilson,
Marc Almond,
Ponytail,
Mandrill,
Bush Tetras,
Suburban Knight,
Franke,
The Grass Roots,
The Cure,
Minor Threat,
China Crisis,
Bauhaus,
The American Breed,
The Techniques,
Sällskapet,
Lower 48,
Skaos,
Severed Heads,
Sound Behaviour,
Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget.
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.