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 Ireland and from Winnipeg.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 güiro 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 The Modern Lovers to the grime 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 Robert Hood. All the underground hits.
All Depeche Mode tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Country Teasers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aloha Tigers,
Kaleidoscope,
Amazonics,
Jesper Dahlback,
Q65,
The Five Americans,
The Fire Engines,
Drexciya,
L. Decosne,
The Pop Group,
Can,
Silicon Teens,
Easy Going,
Lyres,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Robert Wyatt,
the Human League,
Negative Approach,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Bauhaus,
Pantytec,
the Bar-Kays,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Visage,
Godley & Creme,
Glenn Branca,
Qualms,
Juan Atkins,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Laurel Aitken,
DJ Style,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Ponytail,
D'Angelo,
Unwound,
Babytalk,
Funky Four + One,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Blake Baxter,
Sound Behaviour,
The Offenders,
Absolute Body Control,
The Happenings,
Roger Hodgson,
Crispian St. Peters,
Basic Channel,
The Monks,
Motorama,
The Dead C,
The Cramps,
Cybotron,
Grandmaster Flash,
Livin' Joy,
Wasted Youth,
Altered Images,
Max Romeo,
ABBA,
Make Up,
Deakin,
Patti Smith,
Piero Umiliani,
Black Pus, Black Pus, Black Pus, Black Pus.
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.