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 Taiwan and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 808 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 B.T. Express to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan. All the underground hits.
All Warsaw tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Con Funk Shun record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James White and The Blacks,
New Order,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Khruangbin,
Organ,
Bob Dylan,
The Stooges,
Monolake,
The Red Krayola,
Royal Trux,
Funky Four + One,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Average White Band,
Rakim,
Goldenarms,
Ice-T,
John Foxx,
Judy Mowatt,
The Invisible,
Funkadelic,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Associates,
the Human League,
Severed Heads,
Smog,
Newcleus,
Rod Modell,
Little Man,
Can,
Sexual Harrassment,
Public Enemy,
the Swans,
Massinfluence,
David Axelrod,
Hashim,
Faust,
The Selecter,
the Normal,
Alison Limerick,
Henry Cow,
The Music Machine,
Amon Düül II,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Essential Logic,
Flash Fearless,
The Barracudas,
Bobby Sherman,
The Sound,
Clear Light,
Ohio Players,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Doobie Brothers,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Wire,
Pere Ubu,
John Coltrane,
Interpol,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Raincoats,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Last Poets,
Black Sheep,
Man Parrish, Man Parrish, Man Parrish, Man Parrish.
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.