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 Bhutan and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in 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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 snare 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 Aswad 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 Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu. All the underground hits.
All D'Angelo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fear record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Electric Prunes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New Age Steppers,
John Holt,
Jacques Brel,
Black Bananas,
The Evens,
Gil Scott Heron,
Terry Callier,
Bobby Sherman,
Soul II Soul,
Jeru the Damaja,
Au Pairs,
Icehouse,
Ice-T,
Rhythm & Sound,
Severed Heads,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Five Americans,
Skriet,
Pagans,
Royal Trux,
Fluxion,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Flesh Eaters,
Q and Not U,
Nils Olav,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Bad Manners,
Yellowson,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Kaleidoscope,
Roxy Music,
Sarah Menescal,
Section 25,
The Velvet Underground,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Golliwogs,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Infiniti,
A Certain Ratio,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Traffic Nightmare,
Chris & Cosey,
The Human League,
World's Most,
Cluster,
Juan Atkins,
Aaron Thompson,
Bush Tetras,
Reuben Wilson,
Underground Resistance,
Hardrive,
Funky Four + One,
DJ Sneak,
The Slackers,
Nas,
Smog,
Tim Buckley,
Inner City,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.