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 Italy and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle 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 1960 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and New York.
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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Bronski Beat to the funk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Procol Harum. All the underground hits.
All Glenn Branca tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Laurel Aitken record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a AZ record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yazoo,
Excepter,
Mo-Dettes,
the Sonics,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Suburban Knight,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ossler,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Sandy B,
Erykah Badu,
The Offenders,
Charles Mingus,
Siglo XX,
Sight & Sound,
The United States of America,
Hot Snakes,
X-102,
Soft Cell,
Panda Bear,
Desert Stars,
Absolute Body Control,
the Soft Cell,
Quando Quango,
Rapeman,
Drexciya,
48th St. Collective,
Al Stewart,
Mission of Burma,
Mark Hollis,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Fuzztones,
Essential Logic,
Hasil Adkins,
Ice-T,
The Dead C,
Gang Starr,
Agent Orange,
Cymande,
Massinfluence,
The Mojo Men,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Gong,
The Move,
Michelle Simonal,
Delon & Dalcan,
Radiohead,
Joe Smooth,
David Bowie,
Schoolly D,
These Immortal Souls,
John Cale,
Lou Christie,
The Star Department,
Bill Near,
The Litter,
Sun City Girls,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Sound,
Easy Going,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Groovy Waters, Groovy Waters, Groovy Waters, Groovy Waters.
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.