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 Guinea and from Taipei.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 güiro 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 June of 44 to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The Electric Prunes. All the underground hits.
All Donald Byrd tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mission of Burma 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 an oboe and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Peter & Gordon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Mojo Men,
The Techniques,
Tropical Tobacco,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Tomorrow,
Quadrant,
Delon & Dalcan,
Freddie Wadling,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Victims,
Laurel Aitken,
L. Decosne,
Byron Stingily,
Model 500,
Mandrill,
Section 25,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Ossler,
Average White Band,
The Litter,
Traffic Nightmare,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Arab on Radar,
Blancmange,
Jeru the Damaja,
Kerrie Biddell,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Alton Ellis,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Nick Fraelich,
Supertramp,
CMW,
The Smoke,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
E-Dancer,
UT,
Donald Byrd,
Visage,
Gastr Del Sol,
Y Pants,
Malaria!,
Ornette Coleman,
The J.B.'s,
Hoover,
Country Teasers,
Quando Quango,
Wire,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Amon Düül,
Carl Craig,
Sonny Sharrock,
Cybotron,
Judy Mowatt,
Unrelated Segments,
The Mummies,
the Bar-Kays,
a-ha,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Cure,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Swell Maps,
Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia.
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.