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 Sweden and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 marimba 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 Erasure 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 New Order. All the underground hits.
All Oppenheimer Analysis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pantytec 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 synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Human League record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crash Course in Science,
Kerrie Biddell,
Soulsonic Force,
Pere Ubu,
Soft Cell,
Chris & Cosey,
Vladislav Delay,
The Mummies,
Robert Hood,
Amon Düül,
Don Cherry,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Grass Roots,
Unwound,
Gregory Isaacs,
Metal Thangz,
Grauzone,
Gong,
Das Ding,
Johnny Clarke,
Joensuu 1685,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Cymande,
Soul Sonic Force,
Heaven 17,
MDC,
Peter & Gordon,
Tres Demented,
The Fall,
Quando Quango,
June Days,
The Young Rascals,
The Evens,
Eric Dolphy,
Tears for Fears,
Peter and Kerry,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
the Germs,
The Music Machine,
Television,
The Skatalites,
Davy DMX,
Gil Scott Heron,
Matthew Bourne,
Soft Machine,
Bluetip,
The J.B.'s,
the Slits,
10cc,
8 Eyed Spy,
Bobby Sherman,
Black Pus,
The Fire Engines,
Moss Icon,
Gastr Del Sol,
Ludus,
Sun City Girls,
Dead Boys,
The Buckinghams,
Amon Düül II,
Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane.
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.