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 Vanuatu and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 chamberlin 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 Dark Day to the electroclash kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Zapp. All the underground hits.
All Ash Ra Tempel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Public Image Ltd. 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yazoo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Howard Jones,
Wasted Youth,
Minnie Riperton,
Idris Muhammad,
The Star Department,
The J.B.'s,
Aswad,
The Cure,
the Human League,
Eli Mardock,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Velvet Underground,
Sexual Harrassment,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Young Rascals,
Cal Tjader,
The Vogues,
A Certain Ratio,
Scientists,
Letta Mbulu,
Joyce Sims,
Harry Pussy,
Mantronix,
Joensuu 1685,
Crispian St. Peters,
Rosa Yemen,
Nick Fraelich,
The Kinks,
The Last Poets,
Dennis Brown,
Spoonie Gee,
June of 44,
The Modern Lovers,
Underground Resistance,
Qualms,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Cowsills,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Rites of Spring,
D'Angelo,
The Selecter,
Lyres,
Big Daddy Kane,
R.M.O.,
Swell Maps,
Half Japanese,
The Detroit Cobras,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Marvin Gaye,
Wire,
Parry Music,
Technova,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Gabor Szabo,
The Mummies,
Gong,
The Dead C,
Ohio Players,
Zapp,
The Dirtbombs,
Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian.
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.