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 Madagascar and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 jazz 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 Dennis Brown. All the underground hits.
All Easy Going tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Outsiders record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Susan Cadogan,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Groovy Waters,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Count Five,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Quando Quango,
Dennis Brown,
Young Marble Giants,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Toni Rubio,
Funky Four + One,
The Human League,
Ronnie Foster,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Isaac Hayes,
Second Layer,
Bush Tetras,
Tim Buckley,
Lalo Schifrin,
Fugazi,
Joe Smooth,
Eddi Front,
Big Daddy Kane,
Cecil Taylor,
The Stooges,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Star Department,
The Wake,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Graham Central Station,
X-101,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Altered Images,
The Five Americans,
Delta 5,
the Human League,
Suicide,
The American Breed,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Cluster,
The Mojo Men,
The Tremeloes,
John Holt,
Nas,
Joyce Sims,
Jeff Mills,
Quadrant,
Surgeon,
The Fire Engines,
Byron Stingily,
U.S. Maple,
Y Pants,
EPMD,
Curtis Mayfield,
Black Bananas,
Minutemen,
Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence.
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.