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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Johannesburg.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the 808 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 Graham Central Station to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 The Trojans. All the underground hits.
All Harry Pussy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suicide 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bad Manners record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Peter and Kerry,
Barry Ungar,
The Angels of Light,
Roxy Music,
Darondo,
Cymande,
Lower 48,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Stooges,
The American Breed,
Matthew Bourne,
Grey Daturas,
Crash Course in Science,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Fifty Foot Hose,
E-Dancer,
The New Christs,
Harry Pussy,
Nik Kershaw,
Ponytail,
Soft Cell,
Colin Newman,
The Mummies,
Animal Collective,
Minor Threat,
Lalo Schifrin,
Grandmaster Flash,
Cal Tjader,
Alphaville,
Jerry's Kids,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Smiths,
Deepchord,
the Human League,
Jacob Miller,
The Music Machine,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
David Bowie,
Negative Approach,
Brothers Johnson,
Essential Logic,
The Move,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
10cc,
Joe Finger,
The Buckinghams,
Rotary Connection,
The Golliwogs,
The Grass Roots,
Sam Rivers,
The Names,
Connie Case,
Jerry Gold Smith,
EPMD,
Man Eating Sloth,
Half Japanese,
Ituana,
The Velvet Underground,
Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood.
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.