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 Marshall Islands and from London.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo to the grime 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 Roy Ayers. All the underground hits.
All The Cramps tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every CMW 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Television Personalities,
Cybotron,
Porter Ricks,
Robert Görl,
The Happenings,
Slick Rick,
Darondo,
Minor Threat,
Tres Demented,
Sparks,
Shuggie Otis,
Ice-T,
Quando Quango,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Monolake,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Scott Walker,
the Sonics,
Barclay James Harvest,
Donny Hathaway,
Johnny Clarke,
Desert Stars,
Clear Light,
Curtis Mayfield,
Erykah Badu,
Sister Nancy,
Camberwell Now,
The Modern Lovers,
The Black Dice,
Kas Product,
Half Japanese,
Black Bananas,
John Coltrane,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Young Rascals,
New York Dolls,
ABBA,
Sexual Harrassment,
Jimmy McGriff,
Surgeon,
Lakeside,
New Age Steppers,
Amazonics,
The Sound,
The Martian,
Aaron Thompson,
Grauzone,
Johnny Osbourne,
Deepchord,
Archie Shepp,
Ludus,
The Electric Prunes,
ABC,
Loose Ends,
the Normal,
The Durutti Column,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Wings,
Q65,
Minutemen,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Model 500,
Delon & Dalcan, Delon & Dalcan, Delon & Dalcan, Delon & Dalcan.
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.