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 Madagascar and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 Stockholm and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 guitar 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 Selector Dub Narcotic to the grunge kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Lizzy Mercier Descloux. All the underground hits.
All Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every D'Angelo 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobbi Humphrey record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Saccharine Trust,
Con Funk Shun,
Echospace,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Gang of Four,
Subhumans,
Aural Exciters,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Main Source,
John Lydon,
Arab on Radar,
Connie Case,
Boz Scaggs,
Ituana,
Grauzone,
The Birthday Party,
Jesper Dahlback,
Dark Day,
Junior Murvin,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Stetsasonic,
F. McDonald,
Deadbeat,
Q and Not U,
Fela Kuti,
Johnny Clarke,
Quantec,
Magazine,
Vainqueur,
K-Klass,
The Blues Magoos,
Gang Starr,
Nils Olav,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Neon Judgement,
Altered Images,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Byron Stingily,
Das Ding,
Whodini,
Nik Kershaw,
CMW,
Terry Callier,
Wings,
Lou Reed,
Neu!,
E-Dancer,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Five Americans,
Rotary Connection,
Little Man,
Sun Ra,
Smog,
Derrick Morgan,
Supertramp,
Barry Ungar,
Tropical Tobacco,
Pere Ubu,
The Cramps,
Blake Baxter,
Yellowson, Yellowson, Yellowson, Yellowson.
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.