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 Grenada and from Cairo.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 808 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 Hashim to the grunge 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 Louis and Bebe Barron. All the underground hits.
All Moby Grape tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tommy Roe record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 a marimba and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Camberwell Now record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
8 Eyed Spy,
Grandmaster Flash,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Gong,
Mission of Burma,
Soulsonic Force,
Ken Boothe,
Icehouse,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Janne Schatter,
The Monks,
Eli Mardock,
DJ Style,
Gerry Rafferty,
Mary Jane Girls,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Negative Approach,
Absolute Body Control,
Cameo,
Banda Bassotti,
Fear,
Oblivians,
Kevin Saunderson,
Quando Quango,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Blossom Toes,
Moby Grape,
Piero Umiliani,
Joy Division,
Sight & Sound,
Grauzone,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
The Alarm Clocks,
Sex Pistols,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Mark Hollis,
Section 25,
Bluetip,
Lalann,
Scientists,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Archie Shepp,
Joyce Sims,
Electric Prunes,
Half Japanese,
Camberwell Now,
Kurtis Blow,
Charles Mingus,
Max Romeo,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Gories,
D'Angelo,
Public Enemy,
Jawbox,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Knickerbockers,
X-101,
Joensuu 1685,
Infiniti,
Crooked Eye,
Vainqueur,
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.