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 Togo and from Sao Paulo.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 theremin 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 Radio Birdman to the rock kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 London Community Gospel Choir. All the underground hits.
All Lalo Schifrin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jawbox 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Technova,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Can,
Liliput,
Grey Daturas,
The Wake,
The Gladiators,
Procol Harum,
Radio Birdman,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Monochrome Set,
The Motions,
Scrapy,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Marmalade,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Birthday Party,
Michelle Simonal,
Siglo XX,
X-Ray Spex,
Television Personalities,
the Association,
the Swans,
Dawn Penn,
Todd Rundgren,
D'Angelo,
Crash Course in Science,
Gastr Del Sol,
kango's stein massive,
The Last Poets,
Flash Fearless,
Kas Product,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Icehouse,
Boredoms,
The Move,
Tropical Tobacco,
Bootsy Collins,
Symarip,
The Barracudas,
Wolf Eyes,
OOIOO,
Godley & Creme,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Von Mondo,
Minny Pops,
Mad Mike,
The Count Five,
Agitation Free,
New Order,
Brothers Johnson,
Anakelly,
Nik Kershaw,
F. McDonald,
Grauzone,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Doors,
David Bowie,
Leonard Cohen,
Yazoo,
PIL,
Peter & Gordon,
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.