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 Kuwait and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Leaves to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 X-101. All the underground hits.
All James White and The Blacks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hot Snakes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fat Boys record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Mojo Men,
Scan 7,
La Düsseldorf,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Sarah Menescal,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Ultravox,
The Five Americans,
Matthew Bourne,
Vainqueur,
James White and The Blacks,
Suicide,
Symarip,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Dawn Penn,
Slick Rick,
The Dirtbombs,
the Sonics,
Black Moon,
Glenn Branca,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Spandau Ballet,
The Sound,
Newcleus,
Alice Coltrane,
Henry Cow,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Tremeloes,
The Cure,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Buzzcocks,
X-101,
Donald Byrd,
Tom Boy,
Nik Kershaw,
Panda Bear,
Sound Behaviour,
Boz Scaggs,
Fear,
The Pretty Things,
Crispy Ambulance,
Rakim,
John Coltrane,
Bootsy Collins,
Peter & Gordon,
Ornette Coleman,
The New Christs,
Masters at Work,
Hashim,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Cymande,
Liliput,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Howard Jones,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Matthew Halsall,
Gang of Four,
Malaria!,
Lou Christie,
Dave Gahan,
Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic.
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.