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 Mali and from Shanghai.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 Joy Division to the grunge 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 Slave. All the underground hits.
All Thompson Twins tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thee Headcoats record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Livin' Joy,
Wings,
Ponytail,
The Dead C,
Neu!,
Jimmy McGriff,
Scrapy,
Maurizio,
Anthony Braxton,
Bill Wells,
Letta Mbulu,
Terrestrial Tones,
the Germs,
Trumans Water,
Ralphi Rosario,
Franke,
Alton Ellis,
Nirvana,
One Last Wish,
The United States of America,
The Index,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Busters,
Yusef Lateef,
Max Romeo,
Bootsy Collins,
Funkadelic,
Joyce Sims,
Harry Pussy,
The Fuzztones,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Simply Red,
Brick,
Avey Tare,
Eric B and Rakim,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Dawn Penn,
Sight & Sound,
Tears for Fears,
This Heat,
Kevin Saunderson,
Kurtis Blow,
Eddi Front,
Donny Hathaway,
U.S. Maple,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Motorama,
Bob Dylan,
AZ,
Derrick Morgan,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Grey Daturas,
Faust,
The Slits,
Animal Collective,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Sound Behaviour,
Sonny Sharrock,
These Immortal Souls,
Silicon Teens,
The Alarm Clocks, The Alarm Clocks, The Alarm Clocks, The Alarm Clocks.
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.