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 Djibouti and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock 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 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 the Germs to the electroclash 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 Stereo Dub. All the underground hits.
All Crooked Eye tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rekid 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bronski Beat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crispy Ambulance,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Electric Prunes,
Pharoah Sanders,
Kool Moe Dee,
Gang Starr,
Grauzone,
Heaven 17,
Ice-T,
Blancmange,
Second Layer,
Kas Product,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Marine Girls,
The Pretty Things,
The Busters,
Symarip,
The Victims,
The Velvet Underground,
Andrew Hill,
Groovy Waters,
Deakin,
Joy Division,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Metal Thangz,
cv313,
Sparks,
Soul Sonic Force,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Tom Boy,
Skarface,
Section 25,
The Neon Judgement,
Roger Hodgson,
Guru Guru,
Quando Quango,
K-Klass,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Jerry's Kids,
Vainqueur,
Eric Dolphy,
The United States of America,
Moby Grape,
Crispian St. Peters,
Procol Harum,
Grandmaster Flash,
Iggy Pop,
Rufus Thomas,
Don Cherry,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Dual Sessions,
Marc Almond,
Joyce Sims,
David McCallum,
Tubeway Army,
Deepchord,
Animal Collective,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Grass Roots,
The Slits,
Pulsallama, Pulsallama, Pulsallama, Pulsallama.
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.