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 Belize and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Jeff Mills to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Fela Kuti. All the underground hits.
All Simply Red tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Von Mondo 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New Order record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Toasters,
Tom Boy,
Marine Girls,
Vainqueur,
Isaac Hayes,
The Electric Prunes,
Iggy Pop,
Wire,
Altered Images,
June Days,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Yazoo,
Frankie Knuckles,
the Swans,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Barbara Tucker,
The Velvet Underground,
Swans,
Skarface,
Young Marble Giants,
Bootsy Collins,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Black Dice,
Lucky Dragons,
Jandek,
Buzzcocks,
David Bowie,
Magma,
The Knickerbockers,
Janne Schatter,
Brothers Johnson,
Funkadelic,
The Remains,
Echospace,
EPMD,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Bobby Byrd,
Unwound,
The Motions,
Desert Stars,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Associates,
The Mojo Men,
Malaria!,
The Fire Engines,
Nation of Ulysses,
Lakeside,
10cc,
X-101,
Liliput,
Minnie Riperton,
Erykah Badu,
Peter and Kerry,
The Stooges,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Cowsills,
Kenny Larkin,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Star Department,
Scientists,
Visage,
The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible, The Invisible.
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.