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 Macedonia and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Walker Brothers to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Idris Muhammad. All the underground hits.
All The Beau Brummels tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pussy Galore 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sällskapet record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Starr,
Henry Cow,
The Alarm Clocks,
Isaac Hayes,
T. Rex,
Bronski Beat,
Nick Fraelich,
Tim Buckley,
Y Pants,
Crash Course in Science,
Mark Hollis,
Shuggie Otis,
Sister Nancy,
The Move,
The Knickerbockers,
Hoover,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Fugazi,
Nik Kershaw,
Fat Boys,
Bobby Sherman,
Wolf Eyes,
The Seeds,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ronnie Foster,
Swell Maps,
Malaria!,
Grandmaster Flash,
The New Christs,
Dead Boys,
Pole,
The Barracudas,
The Dave Clark Five,
Sun City Girls,
John Foxx,
Yusef Lateef,
Gang Gang Dance,
OOIOO,
Symarip,
Gichy Dan,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Franke,
Barry Ungar,
Soft Machine,
The Wake,
Television Personalities,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Audionom,
Alison Limerick,
Brass Construction,
Public Enemy,
Tommy Roe,
Spoonie Gee,
The Divine Comedy,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Black Dice,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Index,
Freddie Wadling,
Kool Moe Dee,
Severed Heads,
Jeff Mills,
Magazine, Magazine, Magazine, Magazine.
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.