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 Singapore and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Boredoms to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Joe Smooth. All the underground hits.
All The Gun Club tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Notorious Big And Bone Thugs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eric Dolphy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Ronan,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Peter and Kerry,
Lou Reed,
Mad Mike,
Carl Craig,
Sam Rivers,
The J.B.'s,
Mark Hollis,
Accadde A,
the Slits,
The Real Kids,
The Dirtbombs,
Underground Resistance,
Be Bop Deluxe,
the Soft Cell,
Toni Rubio,
The Fire Engines,
The Martian,
Siglo XX,
Minny Pops,
Technova,
Organ,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Trumans Water,
Sight & Sound,
DNA,
Porter Ricks,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Sex Pistols,
Tubeway Army,
The American Breed,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Liliput,
Q and Not U,
The Shadows of Knight,
Pulsallama,
The Human League,
Agitation Free,
Sun City Girls,
Letta Mbulu,
The Sonics,
Essential Logic,
The Searchers,
Byron Stingily,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Althea and Donna,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Yazoo,
Suicide,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Faraquet,
Darondo,
The Standells,
Ludus,
Crime,
The Busters,
The Smiths,
Amazonics,
Dawn Penn,
Charles Mingus,
James Chance & The Contortions, James Chance & The Contortions, James Chance & The Contortions, James Chance & The Contortions.
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.