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 Mongolia and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 Michael McDonald 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 Rhythim Is Rhythim to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Dennis Brown. All the underground hits.
All Kaleidoscope tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Darondo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alice Coltrane,
The Blues Magoos,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
ABBA,
Bobby Womack,
The Last Poets,
Newcleus,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Jacob Miller,
Black Pus,
Subhumans,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Sound,
Make Up,
Sonny Sharrock,
Eric Copeland,
Skaos,
Lalann,
Joe Smooth,
Sparks,
Moby Grape,
Whodini,
The Red Krayola,
Graham Central Station,
Altered Images,
Bobby Sherman,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Curtis Mayfield,
Unwound,
Hot Snakes,
Matthew Bourne,
Jawbox,
The Blackbyrds,
Franke,
DJ Style,
Model 500,
Peter & Gordon,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Soulsonic Force,
Banda Bassotti,
Ossler,
The J.B.'s,
EPMD,
Harpers Bizarre,
Average White Band,
This Heat,
Joyce Sims,
Laurel Aitken,
John Lydon,
The Cramps,
The Grass Roots,
Sun Ra,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Index,
The Motions,
Los Fastidios,
Yellowson,
The Knickerbockers,
Jeff Lynne,
Agent Orange,
Dual Sessions,
Dorothy Ashby,
Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson.
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.