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 Yemen and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1961 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 Michael McDonald 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 Das Ding 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 Bobby Womack. All the underground hits.
All The Fuzztones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Mojo Men record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 a spring reverb and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rotary Connection record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dawn Penn,
The Golliwogs,
Fela Kuti,
Cybotron,
Frankie Knuckles,
Prince Buster,
Can,
Jacob Miller,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Livin' Joy,
Skarface,
Crooked Eye,
Lalo Schifrin,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Fire Engines,
Warren Ellis,
The Residents,
Todd Terry,
The Shadows of Knight,
Mission of Burma,
Con Funk Shun,
Joey Negro,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Soul II Soul,
Gang of Four,
Banda Bassotti,
The Offenders,
Gastr Del Sol,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
the Germs,
Judy Mowatt,
Nation of Ulysses,
Trumans Water,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Motorama,
Sexual Harrassment,
Robert Görl,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Siglo XX,
David McCallum,
OOIOO,
Stockholm Monsters,
Gregory Isaacs,
Jimmy McGriff,
Byron Stingily,
Unwound,
Kerri Chandler,
Pantytec,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Junior Murvin,
The Human League,
Lebanon Hanover,
Vainqueur,
Sonny Sharrock,
Gang Starr,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Skaos,
Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy, Barrington Levy.
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.