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 Togo and from Lagos.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the marimba 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 EPMD to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Peter & Gordon. All the underground hits.
All DNA tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joey Negro 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultra Naté record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Stooges,
Suicide,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Second Layer,
Crispian St. Peters,
Lindisfarne,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Fortunes,
New Age Steppers,
The Count Five,
Masters at Work,
Main Source,
Boz Scaggs,
Magazine,
Skarface,
Stiv Bators,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Hardrive,
Aaron Thompson,
Sam Rivers,
A Certain Ratio,
Eddi Front,
Half Japanese,
Q and Not U,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Q65,
Yusef Lateef,
David McCallum,
The Victims,
Blancmange,
Roger Hodgson,
The Sonics,
The Doors,
Scratch Acid,
Rakim,
Flipper,
Nik Kershaw,
The Real Kids,
Nick Fraelich,
Camouflage,
Sun City Girls,
Fad Gadget,
Sonic Youth,
Roxy Music,
Eve St. Jones,
Negative Approach,
Robert Görl,
Mantronix,
Piero Umiliani,
Lightning Bolt,
Cluster,
Scientists,
New Order,
Alison Limerick,
Bang On A Can,
Wasted Youth,
The Pretty Things,
Delon & Dalcan,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Associates,
Swell Maps,
Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic, Funkadelic.
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.