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 Korea North and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 marimba 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 The Blackbyrds to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Eddi Front. All the underground hits.
All ABBA tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every David McCallum record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Don Cherry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jerry Gold Smith,
Charles Mingus,
Shuggie Otis,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Zeros,
Robert Hood,
The Walker Brothers,
the Association,
Ultravox,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Rakim,
Graham Central Station,
Pole,
David Bowie,
Toni Rubio,
Fatback Band,
Lower 48,
The Index,
Matthew Halsall,
Dark Day,
Erykah Badu,
Funkadelic,
Lalo Schifrin,
Arab on Radar,
The Angels of Light,
Trumans Water,
Terrestrial Tones,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Deakin,
Eric B and Rakim,
Quantec,
The Dave Clark Five,
Little Man,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Boredoms,
Von Mondo,
Amazonics,
Eric Dolphy,
Wasted Youth,
Bobby Womack,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Velvet Underground,
Crooked Eye,
Drexciya,
Ossler,
Fear,
R.M.O.,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Barry Ungar,
The Fire Engines,
DJ Sneak,
Terry Callier,
Gang Green,
Archie Shepp,
The Moody Blues,
Chris & Cosey,
Kool Moe Dee,
Audionom,
The Skatalites,
Surgeon,
Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now.
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.