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 Hungary and from Beijing.
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 1969 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Tehran.
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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Country Joe & The Fish to the crunk 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 Ice-T. All the underground hits.
All 10cc tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Funky Four + One record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barclay James Harvest record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash,
Bill Near,
Warren Ellis,
Joe Smooth,
Unwound,
Basic Channel,
Charles Mingus,
Joensuu 1685,
The Seeds,
John Cale,
Neil Young,
Lightning Bolt,
Robert Görl,
Loose Ends,
DJ Style,
Intrusion,
Jacob Miller,
Vainqueur,
Sam Rivers,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Cecil Taylor,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Maurizio,
Frankie Knuckles,
Pulsallama,
Erasure,
X-102,
Davy DMX,
The Wake,
kango's stein massive,
Visage,
Rakim,
Bobby Byrd,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Beau Brummels,
Harry Pussy,
Althea and Donna,
Accadde A,
Bobby Womack,
The Cramps,
Brass Construction,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Main Source,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Minny Pops,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Misunderstood,
Pere Ubu,
Swell Maps,
Ponytail,
The Last Poets,
Marcia Griffiths,
Ronnie Foster,
The Index,
Bauhaus,
MDC,
Half Japanese,
The Pop Group,
Eddi Front,
The Gories,
Dead Boys,
The Real Kids, The Real Kids, The Real Kids, The Real Kids.
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.