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 Qatar and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Angry Samoans. All the underground hits.
All Mission of Burma tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lee Hazlewood record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 snare and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jawbox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Sonics,
Kayak,
Rakim,
Jesper Dahlback,
Basic Channel,
Jerry's Kids,
Henry Cow,
The Moody Blues,
The Skatalites,
Brand Nubian,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Selecter,
AZ,
X-101,
Q65,
The Index,
UT,
Guru Guru,
MDC,
Faust,
Derrick May,
Moss Icon,
Darondo,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Deakin,
Brass Construction,
The Saints,
Vladislav Delay,
Kaleidoscope,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Rotary Connection,
Donald Byrd,
Warsaw,
Shuggie Otis,
Clear Light,
The American Breed,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Victims,
The Buckinghams,
Harmonia,
Zero Boys,
Hoover,
The Gun Club,
Bronski Beat,
Babytalk,
The Associates,
Los Fastidios,
Bill Near,
Carl Craig,
Peter and Kerry,
Curtis Mayfield,
Nirvana,
Erasure,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Pantytec,
Camouflage,
Big Daddy Kane,
Section 25,
Bobby Sherman,
The Standells,
Lungfish, Lungfish, Lungfish, Lungfish.
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.