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 Afghanistan and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise show in London.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 rhodes 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 Saccharine Trust to the jazz 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 Rekid. All the underground hits.
All Drive Like Jehu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Maleditus Sound record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Flipper record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator 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 Seeds,
The Gories,
Groovy Waters,
The Count Five,
The Modern Lovers,
Guru Guru,
Bizarre Inc.,
Sister Nancy,
Ponytail,
Talk Talk,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Yusef Lateef,
Mary Jane Girls,
Dead Boys,
Altered Images,
Pylon,
Brass Construction,
Terrestrial Tones,
Tommy Roe,
Godley & Creme,
Delta 5,
The Moleskins,
Agent Orange,
Michelle Simonal,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Robert Hood,
These Immortal Souls,
Spoonie Gee,
Derrick Morgan,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Misunderstood,
Ultra Naté,
The Standells,
Chrome,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Fatback Band,
Heaven 17,
The Sonics,
Das Ding,
Audionom,
Deadbeat,
Albert Ayler,
Porter Ricks,
Magazine,
the Sonics,
E-Dancer,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Anthony Braxton,
June of 44,
Blake Baxter,
Pierre Henry,
Ronnie Foster,
The United States of America,
JFA,
Warsaw,
Drexciya,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Public Enemy,
Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses.
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.