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 Honduras and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise 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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 linndrum 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 Robert Hood to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Delon & Dalcan. All the underground hits.
All Malaria! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Trumans Water record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kurtis Blow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Gang of Four,
June of 44,
The Electric Prunes,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Kool Moe Dee,
Marvin Gaye,
Japan,
Theoretical Girls,
Godley & Creme,
The Five Americans,
X-Ray Spex,
The Wake,
Gastr Del Sol,
CMW,
Kerrie Biddell,
Swell Maps,
Mary Jane Girls,
ABBA,
Anthony Braxton,
Pharoah Sanders,
Parry Music,
Qualms,
Lou Reed,
8 Eyed Spy,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Robert Wyatt,
Boredoms,
Jeru the Damaja,
Dennis Brown,
Animal Collective,
Bizarre Inc.,
Urselle,
Fatback Band,
Erykah Badu,
T.S.O.L.,
The Human League,
The Mummies,
Rosa Yemen,
Marshall Jefferson,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Shoche,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Count Five,
Kaleidoscope,
KRS-One,
China Crisis,
Oblivians,
Lakeside,
Radio Birdman,
John Foxx,
Danielle Patucci,
Vladislav Delay,
Dorothy Ashby,
Soft Machine,
Camouflage,
Gang Starr,
Alice Coltrane,
Index,
Livin' Joy,
Black Sheep,
Wasted Youth,
New York Dolls, New York Dolls, New York Dolls, New York Dolls.
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.