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 Tuvalu and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the 808 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 Organ to the disco 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 JFA. All the underground hits.
All Andrew Hill tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Flash Fearless 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 linndrum and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Flash Fearless record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Electric Prunes,
David Bowie,
Soft Machine,
Lebanon Hanover,
Piero Umiliani,
Eric B and Rakim,
Scan 7,
Arthur Verocai,
T. Rex,
Gong,
Bad Manners,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Roger Hodgson,
Howard Jones,
Dual Sessions,
Laurel Aitken,
Barrington Levy,
Slick Rick,
Crime,
the Sonics,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Mantronix,
Minnie Riperton,
Deadbeat,
Bootsy Collins,
Joey Negro,
Lower 48,
Derrick May,
John Lydon,
Pere Ubu,
Swell Maps,
Hasil Adkins,
Prince Buster,
Dave Gahan,
Joe Smooth,
The Modern Lovers,
Jeru the Damaja,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Cure,
Ice-T,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Suburban Knight,
X-Ray Spex,
Basic Channel,
Sonny Sharrock,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Ultimate Spinach,
Frankie Knuckles,
Index,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Public Enemy,
Alice Coltrane,
Marc Almond,
Echospace,
The Standells,
Jeff Lynne,
Sister Nancy,
Swans, Swans, Swans, Swans.
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.