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 Greece and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Jeru the Damaja to the rap kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Blossom Toes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Judy Mowatt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 rhodes and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Radiohead record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Human League,
Johnny Clarke,
The Remains,
Derrick May,
Aural Exciters,
Magma,
Moebius,
The J.B.'s,
The Modern Lovers,
Idris Muhammad,
Niagra,
The Beau Brummels,
Ronan,
Depeche Mode,
La Düsseldorf,
Erasure,
Royal Trux,
Michelle Simonal,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Thompson Twins,
Zero Boys,
T.S.O.L.,
Flamin' Groovies,
Sex Pistols,
Main Source,
The Star Department,
Arcadia,
Donald Byrd,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Pylon,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Hot Snakes,
Ronnie Foster,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Ponytail,
Flash Fearless,
Funkadelic,
David Bowie,
Trumans Water,
Johnny Osbourne,
Lungfish,
Vainqueur,
Dead Boys,
Jesper Dahlback,
Gerry Rafferty,
Soft Machine,
Patti Smith,
Brand Nubian,
World's Most,
JFA,
The Happenings,
Deepchord,
Faust,
The Victims,
China Crisis,
Boredoms,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fat Boys,
Alton Ellis,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Cluster, Cluster, Cluster, Cluster.
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.